The Freemason Academy offers level courses on Masonic Education

27.10.2009

The Freemason Academy

The On-Line College of Freemasonry

 www.freemasonacademy.com

Why do we need college level courses on Masonic history, ritual, philosophy, as well as practical leadership skills?

Because we stopped teaching these skills more than a half-century ago!

Despite the warnings of Masonic scholars, Freemasonry in the English speaking world continued to bury its’ head in the sand. Brother Dwight Smith put it very bluntly when he wrote, " How can we expect Freemasonry to retain its past glory and prestige unless the level of leadership is raised above its present position?"

Brother John Belton gives us a more chilling statistic. “In 1950 the average length of time a Freemason was active in the Lodge was more than 20 years.” In fact, if we compare the records of the first non-operative Masons who joined the Worshipful Company of Freemasons in London in 1621, as found in Edward Conder’s ‘Records of the Hole Crafte and Fellowship of Masons’, that statistic had been pretty constant for three hundred years.

 Today the average Freemason stays for less than 5 years. After 300 years of constancy, we have lost over 75% of our membership because no one cared to retain them. After half a century not one Grand Lodge has instituted any standardized program to change this.

The reason for the lack of action is two-fold. First, the Fraternity stopped doing the one thing it was really good at - teaching Freemasonry. Second, we decide to go into the business of “Making Masons”. Form was preferred over function. Memorization of words took precedence over knowledge. Men joined the Fraternity because their father or uncle had been a Freemason. They wanted to learn about Freemasonry but there was no one left in the Lodge to teach them, so they left.

Finally when the problem became apparent to even the most intransient “mossbacks”, they addressed it as they had addressed all other problems, by forming committees.

Unfortunately, committees do not come up with solutions. They talk, agree to meet again and talk some more. Any recommendation which does come out of a committee will be politically correct; change nothing of any significance. So 60 years later we find ourselves on the brink with no solutions.

The Freemason Academy’s mission is to teach solutions rather than talking about them.

It is an autonomous Masonic education institute, under the sponsorship of the Philalethes Society.

Here you can find not only courses on our history and our philosophy but also on how to prepare for our future. We have a leadership course for Lodge officers. The course draws on the lessons learned by IBM, Continental Airlines, Harvey Davidson, Howard Johnsons, and other American companies who have come back from the brink to regain their former dominance in the marketplace.

Almost all the reference materials are available at your local bookstore or Library. Group studies are encouraged. Any Masonic body signing up five or more people for one course is eligible for a 50% discount which reduces the cost of these individually mentored interactive courses to about $5 per lesson.

www.freemasonacademy.com  will go on line within the next 30 days, but in the meantime feel free to browse the courses we have already uploaded. These are one-on-one college level courses. They average ten to twelve session courses which require you to think. There are no multiple choice answers, and there is no free lunch.

Hillel said it best more than 2,000 years ago, “If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us? If not now, when?”  

Jack Buta 

Founder of the Freemason Academy