SUPER MONDAY

A motivational and informational morning message from Superintendent Willis

Week 5 ~ September 9th, 2024

Super Monday Message

The world can seem to be a pretty dark place if you only read the major news headlines. Every day they present news that can be very discouraging. Those negative stories can increase significantly in the years of major elections. Despite all the negative news, there are so many reasons to be super excited for the future.

In February 2012, Peter Diamandis published a book named “Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think.” His objective was to illustrate with data that the world is getting better and the future might be brighter than the news suggests. He shared dozens of different charts and statistics as evidence that the world is becoming a better place to live. Technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation are changing billions of lives for the better. Let me share some of that data with you. 

Peter divides his research into 6 different categories; water, food, energy, healthcare, education, and freedom. He also shows research about poverty, safety, and connectivity. Some of the data is a little lighthearted, for example, in 1950 only 29% of Americans took a shower everyday compared to 75% in 1999. Some of the data is very serious, for example, the proportion of world deaths caused by war or other homicide have decreased dramatically over the last two centuries. That may seem crazy when those deaths are shown some much in our media today.

Peter titles all of his collected data the “Evidence of Abundance.” Additional examples, in 1900 less than 10% of the world was living under a government with principles of democracy, in 2015 compared to over 50% in 2015. From the late 1800’s to the year 2000, the average work week hours in the world drifted down from over 60 to 40. Over the past half a dozen decades the number of children that die before age 5 in the world has been more than cut in half. 

In the early 1800’s more than 90% of the world lived in extreme poverty compared to less than 20% today. Likewise in the early 1800’s less than 20% of the world was literate compared to over 80% today. In 1940 more than 70% of the United States did not have a high school diploma compared to over 90% today. In 1930 the world had time and technology to take about 1 billion photographs compared to 380 billion in 2011.

There is a lot of difficulty in the world, but there is so much good happening in the world. Have the best week 5.

Super High Fives

Just a couple of the awesome recent accomplishments that need a big thank you. 

• A super high five to the Home Builders Association of Utah who last year surprised Oscarson Elementary students and staff with thousands of dollars in school supplies and PE equipment. This year they did the same for Circleville Elementary School. We thank them for their support of our schools.
• A super high five to Paul James, Central Utah Educational Services, and Utah State Board of Education for supporting the Technology Professional Development Day for teachers on Friday. Paul worked hard to organize the presenters and the trainings for the event.

Other Super Information

• A public hearing for the new elementary schools bond election will be held at Piute High School at 6:00 PM on Wednesday October 2nd, 2024. All residents are welcome to attend and participate.
• Fall Sports Calendar 2024
• 2024-2025 School District Calendar
• Truth-In-Taxation Hearing Presentation
• Latest Elementary Schools Design Draft
• New Elementary Schools Information

Super Weekly Schedule