[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11235]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    RECOGNITION OF MRS. SUSAN WARGO

 Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have the pleasure to stand today 
and celebrate the career of a very fine public school teacher. She is 
Mrs. Susan Wargo, a third grade school teacher at Franklin Sherman 
Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia. She is retiring this 
year, after teaching school for 28 years. She and her husband Mike, 
will be relocating to Aiken, South Carolina.
  I know about Mrs. Wargo because she teaches my granddaughter, Mattie 
Barringer. Mattie loves Mrs. Wargo, and its not hard to figure out why. 
She has captured Mattie's imagination and won her heart. Mattie has 
learned ancient history, economics, math, and literature from Mrs. 
Wargo, but she could have learned those things from anybody. Mrs. 
Wargo's lasting contribution to Mattie's education is the atmosphere 
she created in her classroom. She embraced her students, made them feel 
comfortable, taught them how to learn, and got them to accomplish great 
things--more than they ever thought they were capable of doing. Mrs. 
Wargo is that amazing teacher that we all can remember: the one that 
cared about us, that took an interest in us, that rooted for us, and 
made us passionate to learn.
  I had a teacher like Mrs. Wargo when I was a young boy--her name was 
Mrs. Pickard and I am glad my granddaughter was lucky enough to have 
such a teacher so early in her education. Teachers like Mrs. Wargo 
immeasurably enrich our lives. My daughter Lana--Mattie's mother--tells 
me that when talking about Mattie in a parent-teacher conference, Mrs. 
Wargo's voice seemed to break just slightly with emotion as she spoke 
passionately about Mattie's talents and potential. My daughter came 
away from that conference amazed at this great teacher.
  It is hard to express these feelings we have about great teachers. 
Mattie did a much better job than I have done here in a recent letter 
to Mrs. Wargo. She wrote: ``When I came to this school, you made me 
feel special. You always make me feel good about myself. I'll miss 
you.''
  With those words, I am delighted to pay tribute to Mrs. Wargo, and to 
her colleagues like her who serve in the public schools. Mrs. Wargo, my 
family thanks you for your many gifts to Mattie. We want you to know 
that the good you have done so far in your life has been noticed, and 
much appreciated.

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