Farris Hassan’s Days Off, Eradicating Absenteeism, and Supplies and Demand

Teacher Magazine ’s take on education news from around the Web, Dec. 29-Jan4.

It’s certainly understandable that during the holidays, an enterprising teen might want to spend time in a warm, exotic climate, and maybe even do some research for an upcoming high school project. But 16-year-old Farris Hassan’s “journalistic” foray into Iraq stretches the limits of comprehension. First of all, Farris, the son of native Iraqis who moved to the States 35 years ago, already lives in a warm climate—Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he attends a prep school. He claims that an immersion-journalism class is what inspired him, on December 11, weeks before the holiday break, to fly to Kuwait, then take a circuitous route to Baghdad. There he eventually wandered into Associated Press headquarters after his divorced parents—made aware of Farris’ sojourn only after he called them from Kuwait—had the federal government send out an APB. Saying she had no idea how Farris obtained a travel visa, Shatha Atiya, his mother and a psychologist, later added, “I don’t think I will ever leave him in...