When President Dwight Eisenhower announced plans back in 1956 to establish a “President’s Council on Youth Fitness,” the former Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe was clear when it came to the government’s primary objective.
According to the president, the goal was to achieve “a happier, healthier and more totally fit youth in America.”
To make this happen, the “Presidential Fitness Test” evolved over the years – a once-or-twice-a-year physical contest for students between the ages of 10 and 17. Drills included running, push-ups and pull-ups.
Readers of a certain age will undoubtedly recall huffing and puffing around their school’s track or dangling from the pull-bar in the gym.
President Obama “retired” the competition in 2013 citing a myriad of reasons, including concern that less-fit children were being shamed by their failure to meet the test’s high standards.
Last week, President Donald Trump announced plans to reinstate the program.
“This was a wonderful tradition, and we’re bringing it back,” declared the president at a signing ceremony.
President Eisenhower was inspired to do something about the youth’s declining health after it was revealed upwards of 40% of the country’s young men couldn’t physically pass muster to join the military in World War II. As the country grew more urban and suburban, fewer children were spending hours outside. Instead, they were becoming more sedentary – a trend only exacerbated by the growth of television, processed foods and the widespread use of air conditioning.
The alarm was a bipartisan concern.
Less than a month before his inauguration, then president-elect Kennedy wrote an essay for “Sports Illustrated” titled “The Soft American” in which he warned about the dangers of raising children who preferred a couch or chair to a tennis court or other physical activity:
“The harsh fact of the matter is that there is an increasingly large number of young Americans who are neglecting their bodies — whose physical fitness is not what it should be — who are getting soft. And such softness on the part of individual citizens can help to strip and destroy the vitality of a nation.
“For the physical vigor of our citizens is one of America’s most precious resources. If we waste and neglect this resource, if we allow it to dwindle and grow soft then we will destroy much of our ability to meet the great and vital challenges which confront our people. We will be unable to realize our full potential as a nation.”
Kennedy’s words have proven prescient. As obesity rates among youth hit all-time highs, malaise and apathy paralyze today’s youth. Most would rather play a video game than play on an organized sports team or run free in a park.
JFK went on to quote President Teddy Roosevelt’s warning of what he called “slothful ease” that seemed to be creeping into culture. The 35th president warned:
“But no matter how vigorous the leadership of government, we can fully restore the physical soundness of our nation only if every American is willing to assume responsibility for his own fitness and the fitness of his children.
“We do not live in a regimented society where men are forced to live their lives in the interest of the state. We are, all of us, as free to direct the activities of our bodies as we are to pursue the objects of our thought. But if we are to retain this freedom, for ourselves and for generations yet to come, then we must also be willing to work for the physical toughness on which the courage and intelligence and skill of man so largely depend.
“All of us must consider our own responsibilities for the physical vigor of our children and of the young men and women of our community. We do not want our children to become a generation of spectators. Rather, we want each of them to be a participant in the vigorous life.”
In pointing back to the responsibilities of the individual and the family, President Kennedy echoed something President Eisenhower said at the very beginning of the fitness program. According to the 34th chief executive, “The fitness of our young people is essentially a home and local community problem.”
Not surprisingly, the committee that was assembled at the time noted youth “fitness” wasn’t just physical but also mental, emotional, social and spiritual.
It’s a good thing that President Trump is reinstating the Presidential Fitness Test, but children will only succeed and thrive if moms and dads in the home model healthy behavior in thought, word, and deed. Our children watch more than they listen.
It’s the wise parent who doesn’t just encourage their son or daughter to be physically active, but who also invites the children to join them in the yard or park to play.
