For a young mind, there is no greater gift than that of literacy. It is a gift that allows one to explore places, things, or ideas anywhere without even leaving your chair. It allows travel to another continent or to a distant spot in a boundless universe.

Literacy is a ticket whose expiration date is a lifetime and one that can be passed on endlessly. But COVID-19, a microscopic bug that created a new normal in every time zone, also affixed a form of intellectual handcuffs on many young minds.

In Colorado and every state, the pandemic created chaos. The virus closed schools and forced educators to scramble and create whole new approaches to teaching. Now, nearly three years since the first cases of coronavirus, we are seeing the intellectual impact it had on learning.

Read the full GES Gazette story here.