The people described in these stories, from the BBC and from The Atlantic, really don't deserve to have places at university.

What they describe is a growing trend in education in the USA. The BBC story covers the case of students at Duke University who refused to read an assigned book because they feel they "would have to compromise [their] personal Christian moral beliefs to read it" (the book deals fairly explicitly with homosexual relationships). The story in The Atlantic, which is rather more comprehensive, talks about law students at Harvard asking professors not to teach rape law, and also describes the lengths that professors now need to go to to avoid offending their students (and to avoid the resulting complaints).

I have serious problems with both the above examples:

• In the case of the students at Duke, I am worried that students hold opinions which are so shaky that they can be threatened by reading about people who hold, and live by, contradictory views. People whose opinions are so easily swayed are probably not even qualified to vote. The idea that people should not have their beliefs challenged is based on the same flawed rationale as the drive by some parents to exclude the teaching of evolution in schools.
• The case of the Harvard law students is even more worrisome. It seems that we are educating a new generation of lawyers who don't meet even the most basic requirements of professionalism. If I hire a lawyer to defend me, or to file a civil suit against someone, I expect that they will be properly versed in all legal issues which might be relevant to the case, and be prepared to argue about these in court. The world is full of strange people, holding odd beliefs, some legal and some not, and we have an expectation that professionals are properly informed about these (to the extent that it is relevant to their jobs) and will be able to to their jobs in situations where these weirdnesses impinge on them.

Bear in mind that we are not talking about dodgy third rate universities here. According to this review, Harvard ranks second in the USA, and Duke is at number 8; these are the places where future leaders of government and business are educated. To some extent I blame the universities for failing to enforce standards of education: censorship has no place in education.

Time to stop coddling these students. Maybe they should be thrown out, and their places given to someone who would properly appreciate the privilege of a good education.