Opinion | Presidential Fitness Test returns. Kids need exercise, recess and gym.
President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that he will reinstate the presidential fitness test provoked some predictable groaning, and not unreasonably. On their own, physical fitness tests — once the bane of many children in school gymnasiums — would be more of a performative gesture than a real public health campaign to tackle the childhood obesity epidemic.
But it is wrong to dismiss the idea entirely. The president’s focus on the health of America’s children is welcome, especially if it draws added attention to the need for more school time devoted to physical activity.
A study published last month found that the percentage of children with obesity rose from 19 percent in 2008 to 23 percent in 2023, continuing a trend that has persisted for decades. Meanwhile, more than 1 percent of children in 2023 had “extremely severe obesity,” a 250 percent increase from the start of the study. The startling finding can partially be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, which greatly exacerbated inactive lifestyles.
The consequences of this health threat are hard to overstate. Obesity increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and several types of cancers, which together kill more than 1 million Americans a year. Among young people, it is also associated with low self-esteem, anxiety and depression. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that obesity-related medical care costs reached upward of $173 billion in 2019 dollars.
Proponents of fitness tests often cite the difficulty military recruiters have finding volunteers who can meet the physical requirements. In fact, that goes to the core of why the presidential fitness test first came into being. In the 1950s, studies showing that young Americans performed far below international peers convinced President Dwight D. Eisenhower that regular physical tests were necessary. His immediate successor, John F. Kennedy, was even more passionate about the issue. He wrote an open letter in Sports Illustrated in 1960 promoting fitness tests to combat the rise of the “soft American,” which he warned could “strip and destroy the vitality of a nation.”
In the decades that followed, the tests became a mainstay in public education, typically consisting of a range of activities including sit-ups, pull-ups, sit-and-reach, shuttle runs and a 1-mile run. That lasted until 2012, when the Obama administration phased out the tests in favor of a voluntary program that focused more holistically on childhood health, including individual fitness goal setting and nutrition, rather than one-time tests in which students competed against one another.
There is little evidence the fitness tests did much to improve children’s health, which should be unsurprising. Public health experts emphasize that a combination of lifestyle changes is needed to make kids healthier, including improved nutrition as well as regular exercise. That means limiting sugary drinks and processed foods as well as getting children to participate in at least 60 minutes of vigorous activity a day. One or two annual fitness tests are not going to make that a reality.
But Trump’s executive order could be useful to promote those goals, especially in terms of compiling school-level data that can help guide districts that have been falling short. The president’s task force devising the new test should consider thinking even bigger than just testing children on their ability to perform physical tasks. For example, can the fitness diagnostic measure how much time children spend sitting down during an average day? Can it track what students in a school are eating, on average?
The president’s task force ought to be careful to avoid fat-shaming or humiliating children, which might cause antisocial behavior and make them less likely to work out as adults. Instead, the purpose should be to inform school officials on what they can do to promote healthy behaviors. For example, information on inactive time could pressure schools to rethink their schedules.
Many schools have restricted recess time to less than 20 minutes a day. Some have eliminated it. Ending recess is a recipe for children acting out, struggling to focus in the classroom and becoming obese. If the school day needs to be lengthened to allow for gym class and outdoor play time, so be it.
Unfortunately, the White House has not always backed up its rhetoric with action. In recent weeks, the administration froze billions of dollars in federal education funding, including for after-school programs and teacher training. It reversed course only after backlash from GOP senators.
Nevertheless, the president’s instinct to promote childhood health is correct. Active adults tend to learn their habits in childhood. Fitness tests, if implemented wisely, can help make that happen.
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