The Power and Promise of Humane Education
Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times
Claude and Medea: The Hellburn Dogs
So, You Love Animals: An Action-Packed, Fun-Filled Book to Help Kids Help AnimalsIn this powerful and moving TED talk, Candy Chang shares her New Orleans community’s most fervent wishes. Candy converted an abandoned, graffiti-covered building into a chalkboard wall with these words, “Before I die I want to ____________________.”, repeated over and over. Very soon, her neighbors had shared their deepest desires, and the wall was full of a community’s longings.
This reminds me of one of the keys to living according to the MOGO principle of doing the most good and least harm to ourselves and others. In my book, Most Good, Least Harm, I write about living one’s epitaph. To do so, we must reflect upon what we would want our epitaph to be. Asking ourselves these questions, “Before I die, I want to….” or “What do I want my epitaph to be?” allows us to more fully and deeply lead lives of meaning, purpose and, ultimately, joy.
If we extend Candy’s provocative, community-building, enriching question even further, by asking a slight variation on this question, we can add even great meaning to our lives: What do you want to have done before you die to make this world a better place?
With your one, precious, miraculous life, what matters most?
~ Zoe
Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”
Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to our RSS feed.
Filed under: MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: art, changemaking, citizenship, community building, death, epitaphs, living, mindfulness, Most Good Least Harm, TEDx | Comments Off
As a humane educator, I’m always walking a delicate balance between exposing youth to global problems that are often horrific and igniting their commitment to use their one precious life to make a difference. Recently, after teaching 6th and 7th graders for several mornings, I wondered if our society in general is creating a kind of apathy among most kids such that they do not feel that it matters much what they do. They know so much. Before I taught about child labor, for example, they were well aware that their shoes and clothes might have been produced in sweatshops by kids their own age. And most of them weren’t inclined to change their habits or choices.
MOGO is short for Most Good, which is short for the principle of doing the most good and least harm to ourselves, other people, animals, and the environment. Recently, someone asked me why I used the term “MOGO,” which excludes the concept “least harm.” My flip answer was because MOGOLEHA sounds too silly and affected, but there’s another reason, too. The term MOGO is unabashedly positive, and focusing on what’s most good means putting our energy toward what is wisest, healthiest, most humane, and most sustainable.
Some fear that if they look too closely at their choices and discover that those choices have harmful effects on other people, animals, and the environment, they will experience a number of negative emotions. They may worry they’ll feel overwhelmed, despondent, hopeless, conflicted, disempowered, and even bad about themselves if they continue to make choices they know cause suffering or harm. This is why people will sometimes tell me that they don’t want to know about the effects of a certain food or clothing brand or charity (
An article in the September-October issue of 
IHE offers online courses for educators, activists, parents & concerned citizens seeking the tools, knowledge & motivation to align their actions with their deepest values & to become more effective leaders and changemakers. Sign up now for an upcoming session. 
