Masonic Education

      There are as many types of education as there are things to do.  Basically, we need to learn to do everything.  In the beginning we cannot feed ourselves, clean ourselves, or make any decision about how we want to do things because we cannot yet even think.  We have no vocabulary, no experience, and no ability to reason.  Over the next few years we will solve this problem by utilizing teachers to show us the ways and means to do everything we need to do.  We will be at their mercy because we will not have anything to compare or educational experience with and will have no real idea if what we are being taught is correct.  Sometimes it will be wrong because the teacher is wrong and sometimes it will be wrong because the best knowledge of the time is wrong.  It will hit us at some instant in time that everything we know is second hand and that we have been accepting it on trust.  It may be a very rude awakening.

      As we sit quite alone, awaiting the instructions of the Stewards, we may find ourselves in almost exactly the same situation.  Our only advantage at this time is the education and experience we have gained so far in our life.  We are still totally unaware of what will happen next and are not really sure if we are making a correct decision.  We only have the trust we put into the people who have made this journey possible.  We have taken their word for truth.  As we are led forward and told to knock three times, our world is once again totally blank and we are going on faith.

      After initiation into the Entered Apprentice Degree we are always very happy because it is over and we have come through it unscathed.  If, at that moment, we are asked to recite everything we have been taught so far, we would have a difficult time telling much of what has happened because it was all new, very different, and coming swiftly to all our senses.  We know that we know something but we really don’t know exactly what.  Now is the time that the Masonic Educational Programs must kick in and begin filling the huge gaps that exist in all initiates minds.  Left alone the new member will acquire what knowledge is available wherever it may be found and there is no guarantee of the correctness of the information.  Programs must already be in place that will lead the new member on the correct path or he will flounder.

      This is the exact point where we as Freemasons will either make it or break it with the new member.  We will create a dynamic, energetic member who will fill a needed space in our Lodge or we will create the seldom seen member that does not help in any way.  It is our choice which one we will chose to act out.  We all need more light and that never changes.  The new member exists in so much darkness that, without help, he will seek other light.  He is in an untenable and very uncomfortable position.  We must relieve this stress in a preplanned method that will give the new member security and comfort while answering all his questions and the questions that he cannot even know exist

The most effective way to begin this educational program is by providing the new member with a mentor.  This is a highly motivated Freemason who is able to explain the Masonic experience and provide guidance throw the many paths.  A lasting relationship will most probably be created and the new member never needs to feel alone or on the outside of things.

An educational team needs to be in existence in every Lodge to determine the educational process that the Lodge feels is required for every individual and to assist each one to become the very best Master Mason possible.  They must train the mentors to be effective teachers.  This is one of several things that every lodge can do to make itself more dynamic and sustain proper growth.  It is the way we can insure that we take good men and make them better!

This article first appeared in The Missouri Freemason Magazine in 2010.