The Mistake of Eduction at a Regular Meeting

There is a line in the sand that I need to draw. That is, Masonic Education is aboslutely not to be done in the Lodge Room on a Regular Meeting, bar one exception.

Yes, that’s right, something that is so critically important to Freemasonry and our own personal development and something that our ceremonies instruct us explicitly to do, shouldn’t be done at a Regular Meeting. While I am sure your first response here may be that I am against Masonic Education, if you have that thought perhaps this is the first article you have seen of mine. I am absolutely for Masonic Education as this publication is proof of that. But the more I think about the practices of Freemasonry, and how our Craft is a peculiar system of a progressive science the more it reinforces that our Regular Meetings is completely the wrong place for Education.

In this edidition of Daily Masonic Progress, I will share:

• Why Education should not be done at Regular Meetings,

• Where the right place for Masonic Education is,

• What you should be doing at Regular Meetings instead,

and by the end, you will have a better way to not only engage, retain and grow your lodge but also how do delivery Masonic Education that has the most impact.

But first, let’s agree that when I say Masonic Education I am not talking about the lessons we learn or the education that we get from performing or watching degree work.

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Why Education should not be done at Regular Meetings

Here is why Education should not be done at Regular Meetings. Have you ever noticed how that when the notice paper comes out and the work for the meeting is an Education iteam, seemingly the number of apologies or absent brethren for the meeting goes up. It’s also like everyone’s work or family suddenly has an emergency on lodge night. This strange phenomomon often comes at a suprise to us all and we wonder why we just can’t get them to show up.

Perhaps there is an elephant in the room that we aren’t acknowledging. No, I don’t mean lodges defaulting to a Past Master rolling out a talk about famous masons or the usual trivia style eductation. What I actually mean is that we as a Craft fail to acknowledge our members voting on their feet, that they feel that having to go home from work, get changed into a Suit / Tuxedo, go to Lodge and then have to listen to a lecture about Freemasonry, is just a waste of their time.

Sure the argurment against this will be that, it’s is not a waste of time, is important and blah blah blah.

My question to you here is, what has actually transpired in this situation?

Have you considered that what has actually gone on, is the lodge doesn’t have any degree work to do, so they’ve defaulted to an Education night, in order to fill in gaps in their calendar because they haven’t been proactive with trying to recruit suitable new members to have a productive lodge that progresses candidates through our degrees.

Here is another way to think about it. If you are employed as a builder and your job is to build houses, and the boss says, we don’t have any houses to construct today so we are going to have a lecture on why brick is better than dry-wall.

Now, if you think that the employees are going to be genuinely excited about turning up to work that day, other than for being paid to do nothing - the unsubscribe button is at the bottom of the email. This is the message that putting Education into your lodges calendar to fill in for not have degree work sends to your brethren. But here is the bigger truth you are missing:

In the example of the building company, do you think the employees will, even if they are paid to turn up, want to stay working for that company? Sure, if it’s a once off, its not an issue, but when it becomes a regular thing, the message it actually sends is that this isn’t a company that I can learn, grow and develop my career in. It also highlights issues with job-security because if they don’t have a pipeline of new work coming in, then they won’t be able to pay my wages and I will have to look for another job.

This is exactly what is happening in our lodges. We are ‘speculative’ building companies, and the houses we build are our metaphorical temples of ourselves, our lodge, our communities. While our wages are symbolic, moreover, members are spending their actual wages (dues + dinding fee) to come to a meeting where the lodge has demonstrated they’re not valuing their members time, effort or money. Yet we wonder why they don’t show up.

This now raises two key questions, that if the Regular Meeting is the wrong place for Masonic Education, where is the right place and what should we do on our regular meeting where we don’t have candidates instead?

Where is the right place for Masonic Education

Since we have established the regular meeting is the wrong place for Masonic Education, in my mind there are several right places for it, so let’s take a look at where those places are and what makes a place right.

I have written previously about Google’s study into building relationships with the 7-11-4 principle, where you need 7 hours of content over 11 touch points in 4 different locations. For somewhere to be the right place, we need to ensure its helping build stronger relationships between the brethren of the lodge.

This should lead us to thinking of the different locations and ways in which we can deliver Masonic Education. Let me be direct here - there are two main ways we should be doing Masonic Education, and neither of them requires you to put on a suit and sit in the lodge room.

The first way is what I call "getting together with the boys" - and this is exactly what it sounds like. It's about Brothers getting together in smaller groups to actually discuss, interpret and understand our ceremonies. Now, there are several ways to do this:

1. At a Brother's Home: Think about it - what's more comfortable than sitting in someone's living room, maybe with a coffee or something stronger, actually talking about what that piece of ritual means to you? No formalities, no "Right Worshipfuls" - just Brothers actually discussing Freemasonry. You'd be amazed how much more people open up when they're not sitting in straight rows in their best suits.

2. Using Other Parts of Your Masonic Centre: Here's a practical one - while your officers are doing their rehearsal in the lodge room, why not have the rest of the Brothers gather in another room? You're already there, the building's already open, so why not make use of it? This isn't just efficient - it's smart use of your time and space.

3. Going Digital: Let's be real - we're all busy. Sometimes getting together in person just isn't possible. That's where things like Zoom or even just a phone call with your mentor comes in. You might be thinking "that's not traditional" - but neither was electric lighting when it was introduced to lodges. The point is to make education happen, not to make it harder than it needs to be.

The second way is what I call "self-study" - and this is where the real magic happens. This is about taking responsibility for your own Masonic journey. You know what I'm talking about here - reading those Masonic books you've been meaning to get to, actually watching those Masonic videos in your YouTube recommendations, or listening to that Masonic podcast while you're driving to work.

But here's the kicker - it's not just about consuming information. The real work happens when you start writing down your thoughts about what you're learning. Yes, I'm talking about keeping a Masonic journal. I know, I know - "journalling" sounds like something from your high school English class. But trust me on this - when you start really interrogating the ritual, writing down your questions, your interpretations, your "aha!" moments - that's when things start to click.

Remember that Google study I mentioned earlier about the 7-11-4 principle? This is exactly why having multiple ways to engage with Masonic Education works so well. You need those different touch points, those different environments, those different ways of learning to really build those relationships and that understanding.

Think about it - you could read something interesting about the First Degree in a book, jot down your thoughts about it, then bring those ideas to a discussion at a Brother's house, or share them with your mentor over Zoom. That's how real learning happens. That's how real relationships are built.

And here's the best part - when you move education out of regular meetings and into these more appropriate settings, something magical happens. Your regular meetings become more focused. Your educational discussions become more meaningful. And most importantly, your Brothers actually want to participate because they're not being forced to sit through another lecture when they're already tired from work.

But I can hear some of you now - "If we're not doing education in regular meetings, what should we be doing instead when there's no degree work?"

What you should be doing at Regular Meetings instead

What we should actually be doing at our Regular Meetings when we don't have degree work. But before we dive into that, we need to remember something fundamental here - the core business of every Lodge, which is defined in its Warrant, is to Make, Pass and Raise Masons. That's it. That's what we should be doing every month.

Every degree work is building the temple - whether it's laying the foundation (First Degree), constructing the ground floor (Second Degree), or completing the top floor (Third Degree). And yes, if you're wondering, the Installation is the roof of this metaphorical building.

So why do we default to education to fill in gaps? Simple - we haven't formed a regular cadence of degree work. We're sitting around waiting to see if a candidate is "ready" for his first step, or his next step in Freemasonry, so we end up slotting work in wherever we can, in this completely unstructured way. And let's be honest - this goes against everything our ceremonies promote and say. Afterall, we tyle the Lodge to bring chaos into order.

Here's what your Lodge's calendar for the year should look like: First Degree, Second Degree, Third Degree, and repeat. The only time you don’t do a degree, is for Installation, but the month after, it continues in sequence. It's that simple.

But how do we make this work? Well, it starts with how we handle our petitioners:

First, you give them a choice based upon when the next available Initiation is in the sequence. This shows them we actually value Freemasonry enough to have structure to our work. It also shows them they'll actually get to progress through the degrees.

But here's the clever bit - when they pick their initiation date, and if your lodge does either 6 months or 12 months between advancement, you book in their Second and Third Degrees right then and there. Congratulations - you've just locked in three meetings of work in your calendar for over the next 12 or 24 months. Plus, both the candidate and his mentor now has a SMART goal Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timed) to work towards. How often do we tell candidates “when you are ready”, but they never pick up the book to learn or the mentor just waits for them to ask which results in disengagement and then call offs!

If you disagree, fine, however think about it - this is how every education system works. You don't sign up to a trade certificate or university degree with an infinite time period, every course is structured and locked in with all the dates of classes, exams, terms and graduation.

But here's another benefit - this shows your existing members who are already scheduled for their degrees that you value them too. You're not just pushing them aside every time a new candidate comes along. Imagine being in business and saying to your existing customer, sorry, I have a new customer that I need to prioritise above you. Do you think your existing customer will remain a customer? No, they move on, same with members.

Now, I know what you're thinking - "But what if we don't have candidates for degrees?"

Simple - you do exemplifications.

First off, you can exemplify the degree with a brother who most recently took that degree or who is next to be advanced. This gives them more time and opportunity for the ceremony to really sink in.

Secondly, exemplifications are perfect for your officers learning to perform the degree. It's all about "match fitness." How many times have we seen officers struggle through a Second or Third Degree because we haven't done one in ages? But also, in order for the lessons of these degrees to sink in, and the ritual work to be embedded in our minds, we need to see it done regularly and consistently.

Why is it that a first time Worshipful Master can nail an Initiation in this first month in the Chair, but be challenged to do a Third Degree? Because we’ve seen an Initiation 100+ times, and a Third only a handful of times.

There is also the consideration that when you haven’t done a ceremony in ages, there are mistakes. Sure, they happen, we are human and they’re part of learning, but it's not just about the small mistakes they make - those prompts and corrections all take up time. (It would be interesting to actually time a meeting to work out how much additional time correcting mistakes in a ceremony takes!) We wonder why a Third Degree takes a long time, when we haven’t done one in while, its because the officers aren’t fully confident in their work. Sure they may know their work, but they don’t know their work like its riding a bike.

When we're not fully confident, we tend to go slower. Now, this isn't to say confidence means rushing - but confidence and match fitness mean we can perform at our best.

But you may think, ok, we will plan an Exemplification in the calendar, but then if an actual candidates is ready for a different degree, we will do that instead. If you do, you are making the of robbing Peter to pay Paul. You end up taking away the opportunity from your officers to learn and develop their skills in the degree you skipped, but also from the other brethren as well, as everyone missed out on the opportunity to embed the ceremony in their minds. Not to mention it throws out your whole operating rhythm.

The point is, we want to return to order, structure, and process - you know, those things that Freemasonry actually teaches! This is about performing our core business of Making, Passing, and Raising Masons. And if you're not keen on exemplifications, just think of them as renovations of an existing building (mason) instead of a new build (candidate).

And before you ask - yes, there is one exception to education in Regular Meetings.

What is the one exception to this rule

That exception is the performance of the Sectional Lectures for either the First, Second, or Third Degree.

Now, hold on - before you say "Isn’t that Education" let me be clear: these aren't actually "lectures" as we typically think of a lecture. They’re actually more like ceremonies, except we don’t advance a candidate so they don’t get classified as degree work. So while they aren't degree ceremonies per se, they are something entirely different and special.

Well, what are the Sectional Lectures if they aren’t lectures or ceremonies? They’re are actually highly educational performances that explain the meaning of our ceremonies. They incorporate numerous sections from the ceremonies themselves and are performed in a unique question, answer, and charge format. Think of them less as lectures and more as an extension of our ritual work.

But yhere's actually so much more to say about why the Sectional Lectures are the most under-rated and under-utilized tool in our Masonic Toolbox both for membership engagement, retention and lodge growth as well as our own masonic advancement.

Subscribe to the next edition of Daily Masonic Progress where I'll dive deep into why these Lectures are not just "another education item" but are actually a crucial part of our ritual tradition that we've somehow forgotten to use.