“WE BELIEVE THAT THE GREAT STATE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SHOULD EVER ENCOURAGE THAT CONTINUAL AND FEARLESS SIFTING AND WINNOWING BY WHICH ALONE THE TRUTH CAN BE FOUND” is cast in bronze on a memorial that has adorned the entrance to Bascom Hall, the Administration building at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, since 1915.
I first learned about it from my dad who, as a student in the late 1930s, was one of the many inspired by it. It now stands as one of many stark reminders of how far we have drifted as a culture from our commitment to the truth. The pursuit of truth is a core principle of education, essential to nurturing critical thinking, developing intellectual courage, and differentiating truth from lies; yet through decades of decay our educational institutions have emerged as leaders in burying the truth and suppressing the voices of those who seek to engage in the free exchange of diverse viewpoints.
What Became of Sifting and Winnowing?
Last month, The Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership published the results of a survey sent to the 2,388 tenured and tenure-track faculty on the UW Madison campus to determine their views on academic freedom, free expression, and campus climate. 633 faculty members responded. 70% of respondents identified themselves as liberal and 9% identified themselves as conservative. Conservative faculty feel marginalized, less comfortable expressing their views, and are more likely to engage in self-censorship than their liberal counterparts. Conservatives also believe they are more likely to face institutional consequences for expressing views on controversial topics such as transgenderism and abortion. Conservative and liberal respondents agreed that the campus is much less welcoming to conservatives than to liberals. No one should be surprised if they haven’t heard anything about this survey from the mainstream media. I’ve included a link to the entire survey. https://thompsoncenter.wisc.edu/faculty-survey/
The results of this faculty survey align with the findings of a survey of students the Thompson Center conducted in 2022 to measure student views on freedom of speech. Many students, most notably conservatives, expressed discomfort about sharing opinions on controversial topics. Nearly half of the responding students supported banning speakers from campus who made offensive comments, and supported banning the expression of views they believe cause harm to others. One of the conclusions from the study was that students lack a critical understanding of the meaning and importance of the First Amendment and, given the results of the recent faculty survey, it is unlikely their knowledge deficit will be corrected anytime soon.
Lower Standards do not Improve Performance
The Institute for Reforming Government (IRG) has filed a complaint with the Adams County District Attorney’s Office charging that the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) was in violation of the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law nearly two years ago when it met at a resort in that county to change the state’s testing standards. The IRG is acting on behalf of Dairyland Sentinel, a news publication whose request for information about the 2024 retreat has been ignored by DPI. It is alleged that nearly 100 “experts” met secretly, spending more than $350,000 of the taxpayers’ money, without providing public notice or access. The outcome was implementing new, home-grown standards and terminology for school testing in Wisconsin that have created the appearance (not the reality) of significantly improved performance over the previously used National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The District Attorney has twenty days to determine whether to investigate and file charges. If he declines, the IRG said it will pursue the case itself.
Boys are Boys and Girls are Girls
New Richmond Parents for Strong Schools, represented by Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), has filed a federal lawsuit against the New Richmond School District alleging its bathroom policy is in violation of Title IX Education Amendments of 1972. The district policy allows boys to use the girl’s bathroom based on the student’s personal feeling of “gender identity” rather than their biological sex. The presence of males in the girl’s bathroom is a gross violation of their privacy and their civil rights. In February of this year, a school board member introduced a policy requiring bathrooms and locker rooms to be separated by biological sex. It was rejected by the seven-member board with only two members voting for it. The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education has initiated its own Title IX investigation into the New Richmond School District allowing biological boys to use the girl’s restroom.
The Liberal Assault on Truth Continues
Governor Tony Evers continued the liberal assault on the truth in March by vetoing bills that would have been instrumental in dismantling the lie of transgenderism. The bills required schools to designate athletic teams as male, female or co-ed based on the student’s birth sex; required the University of Wisconsin and technical schools to prohibit biological men from participating in women’s sports; required school districts to implement policies mandating parental consent prior to using a student’s preferred name or pronouns if they differ from the student’s birth certificate; banned “gender-affirming” care for minors; and allowed lawsuits against medical providers who violated the ban.
Truth Decay
The denial of truth is playing a central role in the threat to freedom in the United States. The extent to which it has transformed educational institutions from centers of discovery to centers for ideological indoctrination is jarring. I am among those who believe this decline was accelerated during the Vietnam era when draft deferments for full time students drove large numbers of liberals into the teaching profession; not because they were aspiring to a calling but because they were running from serving their country. It’s been all downhill from there.
The erosion of truth has infested every aspect of our lives. It starts with the person we see in the mirror every morning and extends through our institutions including government, the media, and corporations. Rand, an organization focused on improving policy and decision-making through research and analysis, describes contemporary life in America as the “Post-truth Era.” They coined the phrase “truth decay,” defined as the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American life. They warn that the blurring of facts with opinion has contributed to eroding civil discourse, the growing uncertainty about what is true and what isn’t, and the growing acceptance of information based on personal bias rather than objective evidence.
The fight for freedom will only be won if we recommit to truth as fundamental to a free society. Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII, understood this and proclaimed it: “Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it, but there it is.”
