The system of relations between the educational system and the structure of relations between the social classes is examined in this book. First, an effort is made to organize into a system amenable to logical verification not only propositions which were constructed in and for the operations of this research or were seen to be logically required as a ground for its findings, but also theoretical propositions which enabled the construction by deduction or specification of propositions amenable to direct empirical verification. Second is the application to a particular historical case (the educational system in France) of those principles. The system of relations between the educational system and the structure of relations between the social classes is examined from different perspectives: (1) an examination of the hypothesis that the productivity of formal education (i.e., education not accomplished by the family) is a function of the distance between the school and the home; (2) a discussion of the institutional means and social conditions which enable the educational system to perpetuate itself; (3) an explanation of the role of the examination in the French educational system in selection (both social and technical) and exclusion of students; and (4) an examination of the way in which the educational system legitimizes the social order. In all sections, emphasis is placed on the role of language in education. (Author/MC)