In reflecting on Rousseau and authority, one should face first the perennial problem of Rousseau's own authority. Many reject the thoughts because they reprove the thinker. Rousseau celebrated his human weaknesses in a manner that ill becomes a philosopher of stature. And not only did Rousseau celebrate his weaknesses, those weaknesses resonate ominously with certain first impressions imparted by his work. Should one take seriously a critique of civilization by a man so imperfectly civilized? Should one follow pedagogical theories proffered by an incompetent tutor and derelict father? Should one bother with the ideal of virtue proclaimed by a neurotic who once stood in an alley baring his penis to shock the passing young ladies of Turin?

Among the first to give serious attention to the use of discipline as an educational tool was Philippe Aries in Centuries of Childhood. Aries believes the systematic application of discipline in schools and colleges was a crucial factor in the transition from medieval to modern education. While others who have investigated student life during the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries have not accorded discipline such an important role, scholars such as Rashdall, Rait, Thorndike and Mullinger have acknowledged its anecdotal utility for conveying the style and flavor of education at a given institution. A midpoint in assessing the importance and meaning of student discipline is to view it as that part of the educative process whose form and function reflect the values and attitudes concerning student conduct that are held by the educational authorities of the time. The present paper is written in this latter vein in an attempt to understand the use of a particular form of discipline, namely corporal punishment, in light of the circumstances at a specific institution, Harvard College, during its founding century.

The Somali are getting much cheekier. These people must learn submission by bullets — its the only school; after that you may begin more modern and humane methods of education.

In some parts of Kenya “modern and humane methods of education” appeared fairly shortly after the introduction of colonial administration, often as the result of missionary initiative, but for the Somali pastoralists this was not the case. Having “learnt submission by bullets” and having been finally disarmed by 1919, they then had to wait until the Second World War for any Government initiative in the sphere of education. Nor was the situation of the Somali township traders, who never offered any further armed resistance to the administration after 1894, any better. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to focus attention on some of the problems encountered in developing educational facilities for the Somali in Kenya and to analyse the factors that retarded this development.

The comments by Katz on our paper reflect a misinterpretation of our aims and considerable confusion regarding the methodological issues involved. Let us take up some of the points that he raises.