Mondania Gallagher

Beloved Teacher Retires After 24 Years at Chantilly School

By Henrietta Gomes
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 5/3/07) gallagher

CHANTILLY — After 24 years of experiencing a myriad of emotions with junior high students and simply being a part of their lives, the time has come for Mondania Gallagher to retire, said the junior high science teacher at St. Timothy School in Chantilly. The long-time educator, who will retire at the end of the year, looks forward to her restful days and new adventures in Holden Beach, N.C., where she and her husband will retire, but will miss being with her students. Teaching at St. Timothy’s, she said, has never felt, “like a job. This is like a hobby.”
As tears welled up in her eyes, she said, “I don’t know what it will be like not teaching, but I do know that I need a rest.” Regardless of her decision to retire, one thing is for sure, “I haven’t lost my love or interest in teaching.”
Gallagher, who is known for her encouraging attitude with the students, has always looked for the “aha moment of the day,” when a student has a moment of understanding or clarification. “I always look for any opportunity that I have to be able to make students feel good about themselves,” she said.
The Virginia native, who moved from Richmond to Fairfax County with her family when she was 5 years old, grew up wanting to be a space biologist, but God had different plans. “God had given me what I always wanted, but not the way I [initially] wanted,” she said.
Amid her pre-med classes at George Mason University, which was then part of University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Gallagher, “fell in love with the literature program.” Upon graduation, she found herself teaching high school English and a few years after she was married and had three children, she was asked by the administration at St. Timothy’s if she would consider teaching seventh grade.
Gallagher, who had been a parishioner at St. Timothy for 10 years prior to accepting the position, could not resist the opportunity. “This is what God wanted me to do. It’s very moving to me that I ended up teaching.”
Not many teachers were eager to teach science, recounted Gallagher, who has always had a passion for science, so she volunteered.
Throughout her years at St. Timothy’s, Gallagher, who has continued her position as seventh-grade homeroom teacher, has strived to be a “model of forgiveness. With junior high kids you have to be very forgiving. It’s like the terrible two’s again,” she said candidly. They are the ones she will miss most profoundly, she said while wiping away tears.
Often referring to her students as the “larval form,” she said they are “so obnoxious and yet so glorious.” Sometimes they speak, “rudely and harshly, but they need to be guided … If you hold up a higher standard they will rise to it.”
After many years of pondering pre-teens, she said, “They are like a stage in human development where you can see the worst in them and two seconds later see the best in them. They are so innocent and naïve and still developing. They can hate really bad and love really big.” After a thoughtful pause, she said, “I will truly miss being around their joy of life and energy.”
The familial aspect of the school also will be hard to forego, said Gallagher. In Catholic schools, she said, teachers have the opportunity to get to know the families of the children in the school through the parish. “After I get to know the family, I see [the students] in a different way,” said Gallagher, who has taught the children of her former students. “It’s been like a big family.”
As a junior high teacher, “I’m setting them off to the next part of their journey. I’ve had a place in their lives.” She noted that her students often come back to visit her after they have graduated.
Speaking about God and her Catholic faith is another thing she is grateful for in her career as a science teacher at St. Timothy’s and will miss the “spiritual community,” she said.
Regardless of all the people and aspects of teaching to which she prepares to bid farewell, Gallagher looks forward to time to relax. “I want to learn how to garden,” said Gallagher, who joked that as a science teacher she has only been good with fungus. “I’m in awe of nature,” said Gallagher, who refers to the beauty of the outdoors as, “God’s Lego set.” She has tried to convey that same awe to her students and remind them of the glory of God.
She is excited about delving into the study of the ecology of the intercoastal barrier islands and wildlife of Holden Beach. The avid reader also plans on expanding her knowledge of world history and traveling to new places. Although nothing is set in stone, Gallagher knows that she wants to serve others. “I’ve prayed for God to give me a mission in the Church.”
Whatever she will spend her days immersed in, it will be, “Something for ourselves, something with each other and something with God.” One thing Gallagher is not worried about is finding things to do. “I have never been bored,” she said with a smile.

Henrietta Gomes can be reached at hgomes@catholicherald.com.