Good thought - thanks for it, but I wasn't able to make it work.  I tried it with a lot of different object shapes.  Expand Appearance does create an outline of the stroke, but what seems to happen is that InDesign thinks  the object is the stroke itself and not the space inside the stroke.  When I try to place text or pictures inside the object, InDesign tries to put it inside the stroke itself and not in the space created by the stroke. 

Thanks - the speech script is really cool and I will definitely be using it. 

It doesn't really get to the heart of the question though.  What I'm really looking for is a way of making a cool looking frame (with an artistic stroke) that can still function as a frame in InDesign.  It's true that for text it's not a big problem - I can make a second text box and just layer it.  However, it's more problematic for pictures.  Especially when the shape of the box is atypical.  The students have quite a few pictures that they want to put inside boxes with a brush stroke. 

I have a hard time believing that it's not possible given how amazing and powerful both programs are. 

Thanks again for the suggestions. 

I figured it out!

For anyone else out there who might be looking for the same effect, here's how you do it:

1) Create a cool shape with a cool stroke in Illustrator. 

2) The stroke can be any color, but make sure that the Fill is white (not transparent).

3) Copy and paste to InDesign. 

4) Once in ID, the object will apear as a Group.  Go to Object -> Ungroup.

5) Because the white centre of the object is filled with white, this will apear as one of the items in the group.  It will have it's own object frame. 

6) Go to File -> Place.  Choose a photo and place it in the frame of the white space.  You'll get a lovely effect that can be manipulated as per usual in ID!