The ideal of “public education for all” was and continues to be a major factor in making the United States of America a great nation. Scottish Rite Masons have, for over 200 years, been dedicated to supporting public education.

In 1955, the Scottish Rite added childhood language and learning disorders to our philanthropies. In 1978 the Alabama Scottish Rite established a program for Developmental Aphasia at the University of Montevallo. This program continued successfully for nearly 25 years.

From 2001 through 2021, we provided dyslexia evaluations for children at no cost to families. In 2022, when the Alabama Literacy Act began requiring that schools identify students with dyslexia literacy needs, we discontinued our evaluation services to focus on teacher training. We shifted our focus to supporting teachers who wished to become dyslexia therapists to provide the dyslexia intervention needed by Alabama students.

Today, we offer the services of Dr. Denise Gibbs to the Alabama State Department of Education and local schools. Because of our belief in public education, we are long-standing sponsors of the Alabama Teacher of the Year and Teacher Hall of Fame programs.