BUCKEYE, AZ — Retired principal Rosanna Gallagher, of Buckeye, spent the early part of the coronavirus pandemic in a familiar place: teaching students.
The difference this time was that the pupils were her grandchildren.
"We called it Nana school," she said. "Every day on the portal,qwe would have lessons, and then you will give author studies and so forth. And my sister is also an educator and she did art lessons."
She calls time she was able to spend working with her grandchildren a “COVID blessing."
Gallagher's passion for teaching is also a big reason why investments in quality education mean so much to her.
"We can go to McDonald's for food, or we can go to the most expensive restaurant in the world, where they, they look at everything, the total picture, and you still get fed," she told ABC15. "But I don't want to McDonald's education for our children, which is teaching to the test. Just learning the skills, reading the books. I want that wonderful restaurant education for not only my own personal children, for all children."
She's hoping the changes that the pandemic forced will be permanent fixtures inside the classroom.
"We could use these opportunities that we've learned having to use technology, to expand education to take kids to places they may never experience otherwise, to give children a fuller education," she said.
But one of Gallagher's biggest concerns outside of the classroom is how we treat the people that we don't agree with.
"When I see, you know, this division in our country, that keeps me up, because I want better for my grandchildren and our children," she said.
No matter who is in charge, she says it's up to us to figure out when "better" will begin.
"How can we move forward not just to get back together again, but how can we live a life together as a nation, that is so much better, because everything that we've learned, going through this, this challenge."
