The school is a closed system of social interaction'.Waller.Traditional approaches to the Sociology of the School have been dominated by questions surrounding the relationship of the school to society or to various social institutions such as the family, economy, polity and (almost obsessively) social class. Many of the questions raised by such approaches are of a somewhat abstract nature, deriving their appeal from various forms of social philosophy. In the American case the pragmatism of Dewey was a major basis for the consideration of the functions of the school in an idealised democratic state. In Germany the major impetus towards theories of schooling was the 'social education' movement. In France, Durkheim's assertion of the essential subordination of the school to the state followed a similar tradition. In England Mannheim's contribution was the attempted reconciliation of opposing philosophies of elitism and democratic participation via a sociology of knowledge holding certain implications for education as a social activity.