American Scene
Lexington, Mass., is nearly country, nearly rich and near enough to Boston to attract a more or less upwardly mobile mix of residents: native Yankees, middle-management families from companies such as Raytheon and Polaroid, intellectuals from M.I.T. and Harvard. "You have the impression that everyone in Lexington has a fireplace in his bedroom," says one high school senior. The corollary illusion is that every house contains a happy, intact family. Yet an estimated 30% (no one knows for sure) of the students in Lexington's school system have suffered the effects of divorce. Despite the fact that divorce is now regarded...