Senior Knights

It's time to take this issue up with the College of Knight's and The Council for a clear updated definition and program. And I'd publish the proposed plan for public comment before anything becomes in force.

Because it allows people to study without having to become part of the system?

We are not a school for anyone, lol...

We are here for training Jedi...

Should someone desire, they can study as they like, but we do not have to open our doors to the world, any more than any other school or organization...

Does this sound elitist? Maybe...

But, we don't stop folks from joining and participating... They stop themselves...

We just limit access to some of our stuff...

We've been making it our mission to make much valued knowledge available free of charge to all members of the order through the library, sometimes ignoring the law in the process.
The library originally was and a lot of it remains a collection of the materials masters ask their apprentices to read... you should know that, Jasper was librarian before me after all...

Yes, we are collecting the knowledge in our library for any with access, guests too, correct? (Can remember access level, lol)

But, we've never stated that about our training, only the IP has been open to all, the rest requires the free studies to be completed...

:whistle:
i certainly have a lot of notes to copy, read, and organize....

the difficulty lays in the somewhat scattered nature of them :lol:

Jestor wrote: Should someone desire, they can study as they like, but we do not have to open our doors to the world, any more than any other school or organization...

How do you not understand that this is not something anybody is asking? Do you seriously think that schools out there write and publish their own books to be distributed only and exclusively among their own, let alone among a specific, "sufficiently advanced" subset of their own? Bloody damn right this sounds elitist, and your insistence on painting boxes around your precious list of material as if the list was the material itself is nothing short of petty also, ironic though as it is.
Of course it is up to those who make the demand to demonstrate your obligation to provide, and all we can do at this point is argue that any other half-decent educational institution would, unlike TOTJO, actually not give away books for free without the authors' permission, but would, again - unlike TOTJO, list the topics of every course and often times even recommend related literature and similar study materials. That does not oblige TOTJO to anything, of course, nor does it need to justify perfectly legal secrecy. It just looks silly, but then that's not something TOTJO is going out of their way to declare they are trying not to be, is it?
Oh, wait... it is. :S

We just limit access to some of our stuff...

You don't have any stuff to call "our stuff". Cardboard boxes around other people's stuff is what you have. Compiling a list of lessons life made you face at some point or another is not actually an achievement, you know. Quit pretending that this place is a precious haven at the forefront of intellectual advancement, too dangerous and sacred for the little people out there to even know about. Come on now.

Anton has made a few good points in that rant ...

(... though, you're more convincing when you're not acerbic, lad.)

I don't know what the rest of you are doing ; I'm still keeping track of all of my apprentices (we don't have former apprentices), awarding them "points" here and there when they earn them (though they aren't always aware of it) and keeping the pedalogical/didactical dialogue(s) going ... It isn't so much out of respect for the "rules" of TotJO Apprentice-Master convention, but out of a natural love for teaching and how I view the pupil-teacher transaction (on several levels) as well as the symbol of the mentor from a million years of mythology.

Let's all relax a little.

How and why I teach is a reflection of my being Jedi. Hero with a Thousand Faces has been one of the textbooks in my World Mythology course these past two years. Each semester, re-reading Campbell uncovers new insights requiring re-working the lessons plans (lesson plan = the order and content of the class instruction for that day); and, of course, I learn from my students as well. I regret not having the discipline to write all this out and post it in my Knight's Journal (if I had one).

As I am one who likes order from chaos, I believe that all the lesson plans should be gone through and given a 100-200-300 level designation. This way we can set up our Div’s just like a college. By doing this, we can allow anyone to see the lesson plans, but yet no one can advance through the lessons until they have completed the previous Div.

As Ren has stated, (i can't believe I agree with Ren ) if there are some that come here just to advance their knowledge of the Jedi Way, it would be accessible to them. BUT we do not have to grant degrees to them unless they are in “the program”.

The question is how do we watch over someone who is going through the lessons and then decides to get in the program. It would be easy for them to complete the IP and Apprenticeship quickly. Not if the lesson plans for Knighthood from the Teaching Masters is different from the Div studies.

(EDIT) This may involve creating new lesson plans or altering existing ones, but if we are to be "Professional" in this organization and take up the calling of inspiring hearts and minds, it is a must.

I believe that we should either make the Apprenticeship the A-Div, or we should make the split. Either way is ok, but as this Temple grows (as I stated several years ago in another thread) we will need to become as a college or religious school with defined lesson plans and degrees schemes.

As far as I know:
The library is accessible to any registered user (Guest).
There are forums not visible to search engines and anyone not logged in.
There are forums only accessible to Apprentices.
There are forums only accessible to Knights.
There are forums only accessible to Clergy.
There is a special forum for moderators and admins.
There is a forum for The Council only visible to it and Sys Admins.

Just as no two Knights have received the same training there is no set plan for Senior Knight. There is no secret plan or materials for becoming a Senior Knight. As I said earlier, it's time The Council and The College of Knights take up this issue to update and clarify it. The proposed plan should be published for public comment before becoming policy.