I'll default back to description, not prescription here....Either way, I think we agree the primary work of Freemasonry is not learning ritual, but using it as a tool (and anything else honest) for self improvement.
The primary work of Freemasonry is to make more members (and I call these members "Freemasons"). This has been its goal since day one when the PGL came into being and franchised out its version of plays. To do this it must train members to act so they can recreate plays that give paying patrons what they believe they are paying for.
Although Freemasonic organizations have all sorts of rules, guidelines, traditions and principles that they espouse ad nausea, they have no actual program for self-improvement, much less any quality control system that enforces improvement sans moral watchdogs that are trained more by their own religious upbringing than missing organizational programs. In truth, The society only has programs that enforce systems that make more members.
The self-improvement outlines hidden within Freemasonry's rituals and lectures, and that are espoused by it each time a paying patron received a ritual, are not recognized as self-improvement outlines, not understood as self-improvement outlines, and are not applied as self-improvement outlines.
Furthermore, if a sane soul took a look at the guidelines, restrictions, and rules that applied to stonecraft masonic apprentices to move them to fellow craft and compared them to what freemasonic apprentices are required to do to move from apprenticeship to fellow craft, it would be clear to the comparator that the two processed would not have near next to any similarities whatsoever, even when the operative/speculative claims were applied.
Let's be clear:
- Masonry (Stonecraft) cultivated maturity in apprentices and trained them in a trade that allowed them to Travel, Work, Earn, Support and Contribute Masterfully.
- Freemasonry (Acting; Role-Playing) cultivates memorization, reenactment and playing parts.
Freemasonry talks a great game. But when you are action sensitive, and do not get hypnotized by its sweet words, it is clear that it does not support the self-improvement to which it alludes.
IMO