Part of the problem, in my opinion as a Mason and father, is there is a distinct lack of training in critical thought and logic in our young people. When I read statements that begin with, "It is well known that..." my first reaction is my BS detector going off. We need cultivate the skills of critical thinking, logic and the skills required to do proper research.
One of the events in my daughter's development that made me very proud of her was when she came home from Leslie University with an assignment to write a paper for her Cultural Anthropology course on a subculture in the US. She asked me if it would be OK for her to do the paper on Freemasonry. I arranged for a series of interviews for her with several men I admire in Masonry including a Past Grand Master.
If you would like a copy of the paper for your daughter to read, just let me know where to send it. On second thought, I realized there's a copy buried on my lodge's web server. Here's a link to it
http://ancientyorklodge.org/Archive/Ethnography_paper.html
She didn't get everything right, but she did get an A.