Education starts with information

At the first class of the eight-week “Biblical Citizenship” course at Sykes Diner in Kalispell on March 17, host Ben Konkel announced there wouldn’t be enough time for a Q&A.

Someone grumbled from the back of the room, “Isn’t that the most important part?” 

“Stop complaining!” said someone else.

Before playing the two-hour video, Konkel said, “Don’t take notes — just listen.” 

Interspersed between the recorded interviews and monologues by pastors, pundits, elected officials and a representative from Patriot Academy were calls to action. These included: “We need to be the force, the resistance against tyranny” as the United States is the “greatest country in the history of Earth,” and “We’ve got the book, and it says Jesus wins.” 

The video, so roughly edited that the guy beside me sighed loudly, finished with a hard-rock montage of Washington, D.C., and the refrain “Welcome to the fire.” 

By the end, there was some time for discussion after all, including participants’ criticism of public education.  

“What’s wrong with public schools?” I asked. The reaction was palpable. 

Konkel answered with a story about an event at a private school his kids attended. There, he had come upon a group of senior boys dressed in drag. He gathered his family and said, “Let’s get out of here.” This memory seemed to serve as an example of the perils of any school-based education.  

Konkel praised homeschooling. 

The parents who can teach their kids all they need to know for adulthood notwithstanding, free public education is an American achievement. I recently visited my cousin in Florida, who said families of kids there are eligible to receive some thousands of dollars for education if they choose to opt out of public education. The result has been that many hard-pressed parents take the money, even though they may not have the time or ability to teach.  

Everyone benefits from a well-educated society. 

The March 31 session repeated a question from the first class: “Is America worth saving?” One of the video’s star speakers said, “Objective truth doesn’t matter anymore” and that Facebook lists 74 different genders you can pick for your profile. 

Konkel introduced the session by telling us to “quit your newspaper,” even though a speaker in the first class’s video had said, “We need a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other." 

One attendee said he’d woken up that morning to a picture on his phone from Newsbreak showing Russians bombing U.S. ships. He asked, “How do we know [the truth]?” Many shrugged. 

I keep thinking back to a recent online meetup hosted by the Red Ants Pants Foundation that featured Courtney Cowgill, a journalist-farmer from Conrad. The topic was “newstrition."  

“We think a lot about what we put in our mouths,” Cowgill said. “What if we cared as much about what we put in our minds?” 

Citing stats such as the average American picks up their phone 200 times a day, Cowgill advised, “Figure out what itch you’re trying to scratch when you reach for your phone.” Also: “Don’t create your own echo chamber.” 

According to Cowgill, real “news value” can be determined by how much it delivers in information, education and connection. 

Margaret E. Davis, executive director of the Northwest Montana History Museum, can be reached at [email protected].