Educating The Mason: An Education Manual

I’ve finally sent my most recent “Noah” book off to the publisher and it’s on to the next project! I’ve been hoping to get around to updating my Lodge Education Manual that was published as a “bootleg” copy in 2021. It's called "Educating the Mason: An Education Manual for the Masonic Lodge" and it is available for download!

Educating the Mason

I wrote this manual in 2017 and 2018 and then updated it again in 2021 and then published it on my website as the “Official Bootleg” copy for lodges to download and use as they see fit.

The manual is essentially a three-section guide to creating and instituting an education program tailored to your lodge and its needs. In the first section you’ll find typical references and definitions, but in the second section, you’ll find the real “meat” of the publication where I provide the results of my needs analysis. In the course of my analysis of a typical masonic journey, I identified seven unique stages or milestones, each with unique educational requirements.

Seven Masonic Milestones

The Needs Analysis also reinforced the need for solid, intentional, and impactful mentoring so I included a chapter on what mentoring is, the difference between active and passive mentoring, how to train a mentor, and how to measure the results of your mentoring program. We stress the need for positive mentoring within the fraternity, but we spend precious little time teaching what that is, how to do it, or how to know if it’s effective!

In the third section, I address the types of materials available to support education in each stage or at each milestone and make some specific recommendations (including some suggested reading lists).

A lodge Education Officer or Committee might find this manual useful as a guide to develop their own “continuous education program” that covers everyone from curious prospective candidates, masons, officers, to past masters, and then shape that program to fit their own specific needs; oh, and this manual provides some suggestions for family members as well!

Formal Masonic Education Blocks

This manual has not been updated since 2021, but I think it’s time to get to work and bring it up to current day standards. I believe it will take me roughly eight months to a year to get it finished and then, drum roll please, send it off to the publisher for its first official printing as a publication. In the meantime, I will leave my original “bootleg” copy here on my website (in my “Library”) for use by those who may be interested.

Feel free to click on any of the images and download my bootleg education manual and please, keep an eye out for the next “Noah” book which I expect to be released in October! Journey on my brothers, journey on!

~AMJ