This month’s issue of Masonic Education is about Masonic Education with information provided in a booklet from our Grand Lodge’s Seminars and Workshop Committee.
The title of the booklet is “A Walk Around the Lodge”.
During my term as D.D.G.M.; on the occasion of my Official Visits, I endeavoured to provide each Lodge with a different topic in my address. My addresses were usually about eight minutes. I was concerned that one of my presentations was too long. It was about twelve minutes. It was one of the most favoured and explained certain matters that were revealed to the Candidate in the Fellowcraft Degree. It was not possible to shorten it and provide the content it included. As some readers may not have yet had the opportunity to be passed to their Second Degree, the following will have similar items; but only for the Entered Apprentice Degree.
Some of the items in the above identified booklet, have already been presented during the past year. I will not repeat them. My own comments in the following, will be in brackets.
From the booklet -.
Masonic Education Within the Lodge Room
What comes to mind immediately when you hear the words “Masonic Education”? Boring? Uninteresting? It is also true that Masonic Education is not done nearly enough. The final charge in the First Degree exhorts us to “make a daily advancement in Masonic knowledge”. During some of the regular meetings in your lodge there will be no degree work. This would be an ideal time to have some Masonic Education. However, having someone stand up at the front and simply read a discourse on a topic of some sort is often not enough.
As an educator and teacher (the actual author was not identified in the booklet), I know of two very important principles that work when dealing with students.
- Start with the known and proceed to the unknown. Begin your speech with something which is very familiar to the listener – something they know about and then proceed to add new information or ideas. One of the best talks I ever heard in lodge was of the Second-Degree working tools as operative tools. The presenter had made up simple concrete tools – actual working samples to use during his talk. We were all familiar with the Fellowcraft tools but we were also very fascinated and interested through every minute of the presentation as he skillfully added to our knowledge of these instruments of labour. Focusing your words on a concrete object is a very time-tested method of focusing your audience’s attention.
- A short presentation will be remembered far longer than something of great length. This is true of students but also very true of adults. The average time between commercials on TV is 12 minutes which experts agree is the average attention span of adults. Masonic Education should be done in short stints and can often be centred on a familiar object or concept which is present right in the lodge room.
The following is an example about Masonic Education. It is entitled “A Walk Around the Lodge”.
There is …… a) use of concrete objects within the lodge
b) movement around the lodge
c) short presentations
(During the next few months, the following subjects will be presented) ….
- Columns of Senior and Junior Warden
- The Ashlers
- The Letter “G”
- The Directions in the Lodge
- The Mosaic Pavement
- The All-Seeing Eye
- Cowans and Intruders
There are various ways of presenting these items …….
- all at one meeting
- a few at several meetings through out the year
- one at each meeting for several meetings through out the year
The benefits of this type of presentation are many and varied …..
- the presenter goes and stands beside the object he is talking about or in the area of the lodge which is part of his discussion
- several different presenters can be used – a change in voice and style is good
- all eyes move around the lodge and are not stranded looking at one person giving a talk from one position only – the scene continually changes
- there are many objects and symbols within a lodge room that are never really explained fully to the average members
- younger members and older members alike can benefit from a presentation like this – it is not aimed at one particular audience
- you’ve connected new ideas and learning with familiar objects that are always going to be in front of the brethren – always there reminding them of the facts, information, stories and symbolism behind our lodge rooms and the objects therein
(The above paragraphs have provided ideas with regard to the presentation of various topics of Masonic Education. As we are not permitted to meet in a Lodge Room, hopefully these monthly articles are providing enlightenment for you.
This month’s article will be with regard to – ) The Ashlers
In the Junior Warden’s lecture we are told that “The immovable jewels are the tracing board, rough ashlar and perfect ashler …… they are called immovable jewels because they lie open in the lodge for the brethren to moralize on.” Two questions come to mind. In the first place, isn’t it nonsense to call these huge stones “jewels”? and secondly, what moral lessons can we possibly draw from them?
The word “ashler” is part of our heritage from the “operative” stonemasons of long ago. An ashler wall is one which is composed of rectangular blocks laid in courses. An ashler is a squared stone. A “rough ashler” is a stone as it comes from the quarry, rough hewn to its intended shape but not dressed smooth. A “perfect ashler” is “perfect” in its true sense of the meaning, that is, “brought to completion, finished.
We consider them “jewels” because of their great value – a value that come from the moral tendency they display. The rough ashler is the human mind in its original state, rude and uncultivated. The perfect ashler represents the mind improved by culture and civilization.
The two ashlers together represent an example of progress from darkness to light (from the NE to the SE), from the ignorance to knowledge, from wickedness to virtue. They remind us to keep building and improving on our own temples, to make a daily advancement in Masonic knowledge. They remind us of our duty to improve ourselves, and thereby improve the world in which we live.
(In most instances that I have witnessed presentations of Masonic Education, it has been provided by Past Masters. Occasionally, a junior member in a lodge has provided the enlightenment. Whoever presents a topic of interest, it should be with the approval of the Worshipful Master.)
R.W. Bro. Robert South