<p>Every situation is different, but I have to say that taking our son out of school to go to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, the United Arab Emirates, the Sultanate of Oman, Kazakhstan, including an amazing trip across the steppes to visit Stalin’s gulags and a ranch where the family hunted with a golden eagle and a trip to Ukraine and another to India and Cuba and Serbia…No, I do not believe that he lost out by missing class for a week here and there. Fortunately, his public school teachers agreed. He could keep up and they all said it was fine and would give them more time to work with kids who were struggling.</p>