SUPER MONDAY

A motivational and informational morning message from Superintendent Willis

Week 17 ~ December 2nd, 2024

Super Monday Message

In the fall of 1945 a major newspaper in Ohio put out a call for entries into a contest. It was called the “Normal Woman Contest.” The idea was to find the woman that was the most normal. The contest was based on a statue named “Norma.” The Cleveland Health Museum had received the statue and wanted to find the woman that most closely fit the measurements of the statue.

The statue had been created using the average measurements of thousands of women. Knowing this, the contest judges expected that hundreds of women would match Norma nearly perfectly. They expected the winner of the $100 cash prize would be decided by a small fraction of an inch in a couple measurements.

The results of the contest surprised the judges and the Cleveland Health Museum. Of the over 3,000 contest entries, there was not a single woman who’s measurements matched that of Norma. There were women that were the same height as Norma, but other parts of their body were much different. There were women with the same neck size as Norma, but other body parts were much different. Less than 1% of the entries were even statistically similar to Norma.

In the end, the contest organizers were forced to give the prize money to Martha Skidmore, a movie theater cashier. Martha had the closest measurements to Norma, but still missed Norma’s measurements on nearly half the measurements taken. They found that despite the label of “Most Normal”, Martha was very much a unique individual.

The lesson from this contest should have been that there is no such thing as a normal person. Every individual is different and has something special to offer the world. Unfortunately that was not the way much of the media responded. Many claimed the contest simply failed to find Norma and some blamed the contest results on a lack of physical education for women. They claimed that women should strive to become like Norma.

The lesson that there is no perfect body type also teaches us to be careful in comparing other aspects of our lives to an average. We are all perfectly unique and perfectly capable of becoming our own best selves. Each of us has unlimited potential and should never be limited by an average. Have the best Week 17.

Super High Fives

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

• The super high five to our local Olympian, Whitney (Orton) Morgan. She’ll be the keynote for an assembly at the high school today and we’re excited to hear from her. Whitney participated in the Summer Paris Olympics and represented rural southern Utah well. 
• A super high five to our elementary readers. The elementary schools have several small rewards and opportunities for students that read at home and we thank them and their parents for the effort to make reading a priority. Learning to read well helps position a student to succeed in all fields of study.

Other Super Information

• Latest Elementary Schools Design Draft - Updated!
• Circleville Elementary School Virtual Walkthrough (Draft)
• Winter Sports Calendar
• 2024-2025 School District Calendar

Super Weekly Schedule