How Self-Invented Rights Undermine the Common Good – - David Lewis Schaefer

Philip K. Howard : Many Americans insist that others respect their (often self-invented) “rights,” in a way that undermines the capacity of our institutions, public and private, to address the country’s needs.

Howard attributes what he views as the alienation’ of Americans from their country to the emergence of the “nondiscrimination” regime, starting in the 1960s .

Philip Howard : The goal of a properly constructed legal system is to enlarge and protect people’s (legitimate) freedom, not reduce it.

Howard : When the capacity of schools to discipline misbehaving students is hampered by the threat of lawsuits, for instance, the right of the large majority of students to learn is obstructed.

He says Howard errs in accepting the line that “evaluating teachers by test scores transforms schools into drill sheds, without joy or curiosity”.