[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 65 (Thursday, May 6, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                IN APPRECIATION OF OUR NATION'S TEACHERS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. RONNIE SHOWS

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 6, 1999

  Mr. SHOWS. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have this opportunity to add my 
voice as we honor our Nation's teachers on National Teacher 
Appreciation Day. I do so with great pride, because I was a school 
teacher and basketball coach back home in Mississippi for many years.
  Every day we entrust the lives of our children into the hands of our 
Nation's teachers. The best thing we can do to honor teachers on this 
special day is to take all the heartfelt words of praise and turn them 
into meaningful acts.
  We owe it to our teachers and our children to build new schools and 
modernize existing ones. We must move them out of old and overcrowded 
schools that are in need of repair, into new schools with new 
technology in the classrooms, so America can provide an education that 
competes favorably with schools systems around the globe.
  We live in a global environment. The ``arms race'' has become the 
``economic race''. We must keep up with new technologies, because our 
economic security depends on it. We must prepare our children for the 
kinds of jobs that arise from new technology.
  As a Representative from a largely rural area in Mississippi, I have 
taken it upon myself to try to provide Internet access to every school 
in my Congressional district. Few students in my 15 counties are linked 
to the Internet, so I am bringing together school superintendents and 
local telecommunications executives and workers to make this dream a 
reality.
  I am proud to have been a schoolteacher. I love working with the kids 
of today, for they are the promise of great things to come. Celebrating 
National Teacher Appreciation Day affords us the chance to honor 
teachers who are the bedrock of our community.
  But we should not end the celebration when the gavel does down after 
the speeches are finished. We should honor our teachers every time we 
see construction cranes rise over a new school building, or every time 
a schoolchild logs on to the Internet to explore the world beyond the 
school walls.
  But most of all, we should honor our teachers in whom we entrust the 
health and well being of our children by being good parents, good 
neighbors and good role models.

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