I don’t know about you, but with the constant barrage of bad news coming out of Iraq, when I read something with a positive overtone, I latch onto it. The New York Times recently reported that despite all the death and destruction in Iraq, school enrollment is on the rise. The increases are greatest in secondary schools where the enrollment, according to the Ministry of Education, rose from 1.1 million in 2002 to 1.4 million in 2005. I find this bit of news uplifting since history has shown that an educated population is one of the cornerstones of freedom. So while I was surprised to learn this news, I was certainly encouraged by it. I often think of how great it would be to offer Reading A-Z books in Arabic and make them available for Iraq’s teachers to download. Having suitable resources must be a problem for Iraqi teachers.