P.E. teachers may have to adjust their lesson plans with President Donald Trump’s announcement this week that he’s reviving the Presidential Fitness Test.
The President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition will now develop “strategies for the development and promotion of presidential challenges and school-based programs that reward excellence in physical education.”
The test consisted of a one-mile run, push-ups or pull-ups, sit-ups, a shuttle run and other activities, and recognized top performers with the Presidential Fitness Award. It was revamped during the Obama administration to emphasize children’s health and nutrition over athletic prowess.
Trump’s executive order declares that rates of obesity, chronic disease, inactivity, and poor nutrition have reached crisis levels among children. This threatens the economy, military readiness, academic performance and national morale, the order reads.
“We must address the threat to the vitality and longevity of our country that is posed by America’s declining health and physical fitness,” the order says. “For far too long, the physical and mental health of the American people has been neglected.”
The Department of Health and Human Services will administer the Presidential Fitness Test with the support of the secretary of education.
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