President Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday to reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test, a controversial relic of the Cold War era that former President Obama abandoned in 2012.
The executive order would create programs for schools to reward “excellence in physical education,” White House officials told CNN, and aims to address “the widespread epidemic of declining health and physical fitness.”
“President Trump wants to ensure America’s future generations are strong, healthy, and successful,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to multiple news outlets.
“President Trump wants every young American to have the opportunity to emphasize healthy, active lifestyles — creating a culture of strength and excellence for years to come,” she added.
How it started
Former President Eisenhower created the President’s Council on Youth Fitness in 1956, amid concerns about Americans underperforming compared with their European counterparts in physical strength. A popular study at the time, which purported to measure muscle strength through six exercises, found 58 percent of American children failed in at least one area, compared with a single-digit share of European children.
Eisenhower resolved to achieve a “more completely fit American youth,” a message that then President-elect John F. Kennedy built on in December 1960, when he published a Sports Illustrated piece on “The Soft American.”
The fitness council formalized the Presidential Physical Fitness Award Program under former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who created a system whereby students performing at the top 15 percent receive an award from the president.
What activities are in it?
The individual activities have shifted over the decades, according to Harvard Health Publishing, but five core items have remained: a 1-mile run; pullups or pushups; situps; shuttle run; and the sit-and-reach.
Who takes it?
The test was typically administered to students at public middle and high schools across the country, but some elementary and private schools opted to incorporate the fitness tests into their physical education curricula.
Only 10- to 17-year-olds, however, were eligible for the presidential physical fitness awards.
Why it ended
After the 2012-2013 school year, the Obama administration retired the presidential fitness test, arguing that an annual competition does not inspire healthy lifestyle choices as much as access to a comprehensive program with vast resources would.
Obama replaced the test with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, which “moved away from recognizing athletic performance to providing a barometer on student’s health,” according to the program’s website.
“The Presidential Youth Fitness Program places emphasis on the value of living a physically active and healthy lifestyle — in school and beyond,” the program description reads. “The program minimizes comparisons between children and instead supports students as they pursue personal fitness goals for lifelong health.”
The shift away from the fitness test also came amid a heightened focus on mental health concerns, which many students associated with the test. Reports online from former students describe the test as sadistic and the experience as humiliating and “nightmarish.”
One former physical education teacher described the test as “totally backwards” in an interview with NPR shortly after Obama retired the test, adding, “We knew who was going to be last, and we were embarrassing them. We were pointing out their weakness.”
