A Philosopher Comes to Town

By MARK EDMUNDSON

I see Franklin Lears now, through the long prism of time past, shambling into Medford High School on the day before classes begin. He climbs the sadly worn steps, enters the building, and begins walking down a passage that connects the two wings of the high school that are still intact. He walks with back bent, dressed in a tropical suit, two sizes baggy, lugging a briefcase loaded down with a small library of books that, though he will probably have no occasion to read them in the next few