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This paper offers a framework for the sociological study of formal education, with particular reference to the social history of the United States. After a brief discussion of American interpretations of the role of education in society, the paper focuses on how groups and individuals have shaped and used formal education as part of their efforts to achieve social mobility or maintain positions on the social scene. The social groups which sponsor educational programs, the professional groups which do the teaching, and the students who constitute their clienteles are explored in turn, with special attention to the educational consequences of conflicting social interests. To THE GREAT disadvantage of those working in the sociology of education, the problem of the relation of education to the society as a whole has been out of fashion for about fifty years. Since the period when many social theorists abandoned their strong and explicit interest in social reform, the social analysis of education has appeared as either a marginal topic in the work of general sociologists or a vital but narrowed problem in research (by sociologists of education and others) on public schooling, higher education, and the few other educational areas to which public concern has directed attention.' In the spirit of broadening argument and research, this paper offers a framework or series of questions for the sociological study of education-a way of analyzing how new kinds of formal education arise and how they acquire their particular characteristics. My approach is socio-historic, focusing on how long-term American social patterns have helped to shape American education. The notion of education which I employ is purposefully broad, although this particular discussion concentrates on formal education. I have not attempted a "complete" interpretation of American education. Rather, I have tried to point out crucial questions which

Proceeding from the premise that governmental policy inevitably reflects a position with respect to the family as a social institution, this paper attempts to describe some of the current explicit and implicit components of this policy as well as factors which have contributed to its development. A position is developed that government policy with respect to the family should be made more visible and clearly articulated. A final section suggests some guide lines for the formulation of this policy as well as strategies for its realization.

Recent events in newly independent and still dependent territories in the Middle East and elsewhere have again demonstrated the close relation between national agitation and the schools. Movements of national independence and political agitation against foreign rulers or unpopular national governments in such territories often seek some support for their cause in the schools, occasionally and secretly among the teachers, but more frequently and openly among the students. The purpose of this paper is to examine such a situation in mandatory Palestine as a typical case 1. The mandatory regime proved to be a break with Ottoman educational practice. Thus the control by the Government of Palestine of the Arab educational system was direct and complete: all administrative and higher executive posts were placed in British hands, and such local education committees as survived the change of rulers became consultative only, strictly under official control. In their struggle for national independence the Arabs always maintained that in this particular respect the mandatory government "usurped their municipal rights." This claim was made in a memorandum submitted in I925 to the Leage of Nations' Permanent Mandates Commission. 2 They argued that municipalities as organs of local government had fairly wide powers and duties with regard to education during the Turkish days. These powers were either completely assumed by the new govern