By Paul R. Swanson, MSM, 32° KCCH
The purpose of this paper is to use evidence and data to refute the multi-decade long push by forces within our society who want to dumb down intellectualism and common sense in our country, or what our ritual has noted as the 7 liberal arts and sciences. I will show that the study of the arts and sciences has been beneficial to our country in our past and are worthy of study for individuals as well as groups today.
Executive Summary:
- American Masons traditionally support education.
- Learning how to learn was the original reason for higher education.
- The GI Bills influence on American education was huge.
- How humanity academics helped the US win WWII
- Learning how to learn is widely used in the US Military all-volunteer force.
- Plutarch’s Lives & Bible, foundation for our hidden ritual features.
- More education usually translates into a longer & happier life.
- Masonic surveys reflect what members want, & education is the key.
The current populist movement in America is suspicious of any individual progress, progressive science, and higher education in general and contends that for most Americans, they are an unnecessary cost.
From a Pew study, “just 22% of Americans say the cost of college is worth it, even if someone has to take out loans. A larger share (47%) says the cost is worth it only if someone doesn’t have to take out loans, while 29% say the cost is not worth it.” [1]
From the Holy Bible (Matthew 7:7) “Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” A Masonic author, Stephen Dafoe noted that this rings particularly true for Masons, with “ask, seek, and Knock” consisting of three, four, and five letters respectively.” [2] The geometry of those numbers to Masons represents the education cited in the 7 liberal arts and sciences
from our ritual. The famous 47th problem of Euclid reflects the numbers 3, 4, and 5 as shown below.
Freemasons have traditionally been at the forefront of education reform in the United States. Daniel Egel, PhD wrote about the Grand Master of New York, DeWitt Clinton, who established the New Youk Free School Society in 1809. This society provided free education to Masonic children with voluntary donations from Freemasons.
Egel commented further, “In addition to providing free education to over 600,000 students and training 1,200 teachers before its closure in 1854 this Society served as a model for development of the public education system in New York and donated its buildings and equipment to the public school system that has been founded in 1842 (Mackey and Haywood 2003, P 817) [4]
The purpose of an advanced or higher education has been in the past to “learn how to learn”, meaning the mind of the student is presented with different learning methods and patterns until each individual figures what is his or her most efficient learning method and acquires the habits and practical applications that will allow them to succeed in their future with whatever new learning requirements they face.
After WWI, American Freemasonry began lobbying the federal government for federally funded public schools. In 1920, the Supreme Council Southern Jurisdiction, United States of America, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, declared itself in favor of the creation of a Department of Education with a Secretary in the president’s cabinet. The Masonic historian Albert G. Mackey credited the Scottish Rite for “the passage of a federal education bill that embodies the principle of federal aid to the public schools in order to provide funds for the equalization of educational opportunities to the children of the Nation.” [5]
During WWII individuals with an advanced education were instrumental in saving the lives of our military members when librarians and humanity academics were recruited by the newly formed Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner to our modern CIA. In very concrete and practical ways hundreds of academics contributed immediately and in a huge way towards winning the war.
These hundreds of mostly humanity majors reinvented how intelligence work was conducted, collected, and disseminated as actionable intelligence for the wartime leaders. They literally rewrote the book on intelligence gathering that is still useful today, as well as being credited with saving thousands of lives in the numerous campaigns to retake North Africa, Europe and the Asian progress towards processing the war against the Empire of Japan. [6]
The creativity and out of the box thinking these “humanity” academics brought to the war was extremely crucial to the United States winning the war. The merits of an education, even one in the humanities as opposed to a hard major in the sciences, were proven to be a worthy pursuit in a real time effort. Those with degrees proved their members had learned how to learn and produced an astounding effect for their country and were credited with saving thousands of lives.
However, ritual memorization and recital evolved into the substitute over the promotion of learning and character building. Building better men through education fell out of favor after WWII and was replaced by ritualists and chasing titles.
Stephen Dafoe, a well-known Masonic author, put the idea of Masons don’t read another way. “Perhaps modern Freemasons do not want to be educated. Perhaps we are what we have become, or worse, what we have allowed the Fraternity to become: a pale imitation of the service clubs— “The Rotary in Regalia” or “Feemasonarians” (to use one of the turns of phrase I am best known for). Perhaps Mackey was correct: “Freemasons don’t read.” [7]
Following WWII Masonry saw a huge influx of petitions. One of the biggest influencers for these petitions may have been the widely disseminated book handed out to many of the American military (over 700,000 free copies), The Tigers Paw, by Carl H. Claudy, a fast-read book written at a grade school level and seemingly very successful in creating a positive image of Masonry among returning military members. [8] The book was “published for free distribution to service men by Army and Navy Masonic Service Centers.”
Stephen Dafoe wrote about this issue too. “It is my belief that the influx of men into the Craft following the conclusion of WWII, much applauded by the leaders of the Craft today, was the death knell for intellectualism in Freemasonry. These men, for the most part, were not looking for philosophical inquiry; they were looking for camaraderie of the type found in the barracks.” He further states, “Circumambulation substituted for marching drills, and slowly but surely the mechanic of the ritual has been allowed to take hold of the Craft, creating ceremony over substance that has driven the intellectual out of Freemasonry.”
Ray Dalio, a retired hedge fund manager writing in 2021 placed education as one of the Key Eight Measures of Power for a country as he reviewed the last 500 years of economic cycles in the history of the developed world. He ranks the upswing or downsizing of countries by metrics, with education being a significant measuring point. Masonry has been emphasizing education for the last 300 years or more. America, as ranked by Dalio, has a very positive educational base while facing a decline in the ratings overall.
How about for an individual mason, does higher education really matter? The simple answer is a resounding yes! The evidence and details are more than most readers will wade through, but the scientist Michael Marmot reviewed the evidence and data from thousands of studies proving the “status syndrome” was not only real, but accurate.
In his book, The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity, a popular book Marmot reviewed his idea of the how societies are stratified and develop hierarchies, no matter if they have a history of social classes like England or none like the United States.
He further states, “The higher the education, the longer people are likely to live, and the better their health is likely to be.” Also, “This is the social gradient in health played out across the whole society. In general, a few more years of education translates into longer and healthier lives.” [9]
Marmot would go on to explain that higher education in most cases resulted in more control over one’s time and leisure. “The important things of life, control over your life, love and important social relationships, riches that are not measured by money, are related to when, and how, we die.”
The surveys are in, and they agree. Perspective petitioners want the process of making good men better, part of which is the Masonic education. In 2016 a survey of 2,300 masons answered a survey organized by Brother Jon Ruark. Those findings were reported in the Plumbline in 2019. [10]
“According to Ruark’s survey, nearly 90% of members believe Masonic education is either important or very important.
However, 65% of members say that their Lodge provides Masonic education between sometimes and never.”
One in four masons are unhappy with their Lodge experience is the takeaway from all of the surveys, past and recent.
Ruark further states, “Those brothers are not finding in lodges an inclination toward spirituality, philosophy, education, research, or history.” He lamented, “And we’re letting them walk out the door.”
Following a survey in 2016, another survey in 2018, this time involving the Masons in the states of Indiana, Ohio, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, summarizing the results from 8,500 Masons, they noted, “The Call for Continuing Education is Universal.” [11]
I was involved in two far smaller district surveys in my area of North Florida, the sixth and the seventh Masonic districts. Our findings for the most part mirrored the survey of 2016 reported earlier by the Scottish Rite Research Society, in the quarterly bulletin, The Plumbline. Masonic education is desired by the membership, making good men better is also desired. [12]
Jon Ruark reported data collected by the Masonic Service Association that if present trends continue the fraternity will die out somewhere between 2027 and 2040.
[1] Pew Research Center 28 Dec 24 post
[2] Heredom Volume 14, 2006 page 170
[3] 47th Problem of Euclid – What is the meaning of this Masonic Symbol?
[4] Heredom Volume 21, 2013 The importance of Freemasonry in the Western United States During the 19th Century, by Danel Egel, PhD
[5] The Freemasons in America: Inside the Secret Society, 2006, by H. Paul Jeffers, page 111
[6] Book and Dagger, by Elyse Graham, How Scholars and Librarians became the unlikely spies of WWII, 2024
[7] Heredom Volume 14, 2006 Reading, Writing, and Apathy: The Rise and Fall of Masonic Education by Stephen Dafoe, 32°-page 161.
[8] Scottish Rite Journal November/December 2022 page 6 & 7,
[9] The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity, by Michael Marmot, 2004, pages 14 and 15.
[10] The Plumbline, Winter, 2019 Volume 26, No. 4. The Future of Freemasonry: Who we are and what we have to offer.
[11] The Path Forward, Blue Lodge Mason Survey Results as presented by David A Glattly, Sovereign Grand Commander, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction.
[12] Florida Masonic District 7 Survey 2024 – Scottish Rite Valley of Tallahassee, by Paul R. Swanson, The Florida Mason, Above and Beyond, Fall 2024 Vol 3, Issue 2 page 19.