Young voices: Two kids explain how the pandemic changed their lives

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently visited Trisha Tanner’s classroom in Marietta. The goal was to learn how pandemic disruptions had undermined learning, but a different story emerged.

Two fifth-grade students at Hickory Hills Elementary, Penny Davis and Nolan Waters, did talk about the challenges of attending school online and about how they “catched up” when they were back in person.

But the cousins also described how the adults in their world — their parents and teachers — helped them, and also how the duo helped each other.

They shared how the pandemic delivered them to the same home and classroom, and how it bent their life stories into a new arc.