Do not limit yourself by personal experience in choosing what “Masonic” education is and I would provide that you need not limit education to things that are “Masonic” unless specifically forbidden by your Grand Lodge. Even then, with Masonry encompassing the arts and sciences there is little that is not of interest to Masons, by definition making it Masonic. A well-rounded man in his community should be just that, well rounded. Limiting study to the degrees, or specifically provable Masonic symbolism is foolish and unnecessarily limits the scope of the fraternity.
The key to quality education is planning. You cannot bring in outside speakers, for instance, as a last minute exercise. It requires planning and hard work. Empower someone in your lodge to research speakers, determine the cost, book them and bring them. Plan for this a minimum of six months in advance, but a year is better.
Contact brethren in the lodge at the beginning of the year to inform them of the dates of their presentation and do not create a culture where they can fail or not perform. In other words, missing that presentation on your day is like missing your own wedding and hit that home from the front.
Get creative in what you might investigate. We have had a Native American drummer describe the meditation that can accompany music. We have had noted author, researcher and quantum physicist Dr. Casey Blood discuss the quantum reality of the soul. We have had Luis Sahagan, who wrote Manly P. Hall’s biography, discuss his research and discovers. Members have presented on music, the skull, leadership, Pythagoras, geometry, kaballah and alchemy. Author Timothy Freke, Right Worshipful Bro. Peter Taylor a provincial Grand Secretary and researcher in Scotland, and others have been flown in from overseas to present. We don’t limit presenters to men who might be present on the continent.
Education can be a paper, a PowerPoint, a video compilation, or a music piece.
Education can be Socratic discussion. Someone can present a short talk on a topic and allow for discussion on that topic. To encourage discussion; present on the subject, then pick the first responder, then he must do likewise. This would continue until every man in lodge has had a chance or a predetermined, allotted amount of time has passed. In other words, people’s minds can only handle what their butts can take. A good presentation or discussion can be killed by continuing too long. I recommend no longer than a one hour lodge presentation unless breaks of 10 minutes on the hour are built in. Don’t try to fit in everything in a night. You have years for the journey, use them.
Don’t convince yourself that there need be only one presenter in an evening and that every presentation must last an hour. If a brother wants to present a paper that is fifteen or twenty minutes long, allow him to do so. Schedule two papers for the night or three fifteen minute papers. Some lodges allow for Socratic discussion. This is not my preference, and I recommend keeping the temple space sacred. In other words, no disharmony is allowed in lodge; discussion occurs at the Agape after the presentation. In this fashion, if discussion is heated, it is not heated within the tyled recesses of the lodge.
“But my lodge will not allow for education.” Well, then form a new one, move to a different one, or bring a paper and stand up and start reading it during good of the order.
If you do nothing else in lodge, do something to educate one another. If you fail in this, you are failing in Freemasonry. It is not that your lodge need be a Traditional Observance lodge to enrich the membership education, but if you do nothing to enrich the members at all then the term Masonic is unjustly applied to the lodge.