April is the month when Lodges throughout California are asked to conduct a public schools program. Our fraternity advocates the belief that no society can remain free without an educated citizenry, and the largest part of our citizenry will not be educated without our public schools. For these reasons, Masons openly support our public schools system. On April 1, Wisdom Lodge will recognize a unique public school that serves all of Los Angeles County with a performance by a Jazz Ensemble from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

The Masonic fraternity's concern with public schools is more apparent when viewed in historical context. Long before formal schools existed, there were vocational guilds such as operative stone masons; a Master Mason would take in apprentices and provide them room and board for several years, during which time they would learn their craft along with other learning that was appropriate for the society in which they lived. The subjects they learned about included grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, and various social topics.

With the advent of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, both Protestant and Roman Catholic groups began to offer formal education to more people. Thus, private schools began to emerge. Public schools came later.

In Freemasonry, we draw lessons from the teachings of the ancient operative masons, which evolved into speculative Masonry Developing character, leadership, better individuals, better family men, better citizens through education are goals of Freemasonry. Given these values, it is not surprising that our Masonic predecessors supported the idea of free universal education for the citizenry. Most of our citizens cannot afford a private education, but it is in everyone's benefit that we have strong public schools to build better communities. Therefore, we must support a public school system, however it may continue to evolve in the future.