President Donald Trump’s plans to bring back the Presidential Fitness Test stirred immediate reactions from adults, who still carry vivid childhood memories of running a mile or doing pull-ups as their classmates watched.
The test, also known as the President’s Fitness Test, has involved various exercises to demonstrate physical strength, endurance, and flexibility since it was first launched amid Cold War fears about American competitiveness.
Many Americans who attended public K-12 schools before the test was phased out in 2013 remember proving their strengths at events like the mile run, chin-ups, sit ups, and a test that measured how far students could reach while sitting on the ground. The test also included a “pacer” or “shuttle run,” which required students to run 20-meter stretches at increasingly shortened intervals. The earliest versions required students to throw a softball across the gym, and some schools incorporated events like a timed rope climb.
For some, those events stoked fun memories of light-hearted competition. For others, they evoke unhealthy comparisons with peers and complete embarrassment.
Education Week asked educators on LinkedIn and Facebook about their memories of taking the test as a child—and how they feel about its return.
Asked what they remember from the test, 62% of respondents to an Education Week LinkedIn poll said “embarrassment in P.E. class,” 25% said “competition among peers,” and 8% said “a love of exercise.”
Fitness test sparks embarrassing memories for many
Some readers said they struggled to do physical activities in front of others.
As a P.E. teacher, I can tell you it’s a terrible way to assess student ability. It doesn’t allow for individual improvement.
As an overweight kid, it was torture. Kids ridiculed me relentlessly.
Being mocked mercilessly by my classmates for my incomparable clumsiness.
I remember HATING RUNNING THE MILE. Literally DREADED IT! Never cared about the other things! Did we get prizes?! Clearly I didn’t win any 😬😂 I think it’s great to focus on healthy kids, but I’m not sure this is the ticket.
Took every trace of fun out of physical education.
I tried to be absent! I was horrified. It was embarrassing.
Some remember harmless competition and fun
Some educators still bask in the glory days of finishing the mile first. One social media user posted a photo of old certificates she got for finishing at the top of her class decades ago. Some even recalled specific classmates who beat them by one or two pull-ups, a memory they can’t shake decades later.
Still have my awards.
I won the softball throw, and scored high enough for the "cool" patch on my phys. ed. uniform.
I won the award in 6th grade! I had to work so hard to do the pull ups! My parents bought a chin-up bar, and I practiced every day!
I loved it! I was a gymnast and my friends (who were also gymnasts) and I would compete to see who could do better. I still have my certificates and patches. I would not be as successful at it now! 😂
I was a skinny, very nerdy kid with no friends in my gym class. On my turn, I got up and did my darndest to hold my head above the bar. My arms started shaking after what felt like minutes but what was probably about 10 seconds. Then the coolest thing happened. The girls started calling up words of encouragement. One girl who was so much cooler than I was or ever would be started shouting out names of hot guys in bands (“Kurt Cobain! Eddie Vedder!”) to motivate me to hold on. It was a rare moment of solidarity in a time of life when it seems girls are pitted against one another.
Some believe the test taught students to value exercise
Some educators said the test could help emphasize the value of exercise and healthy habits. Others said it’s up to physical education teachers to ensure it doesn’t lead to unhealthy competition or shame.
Our P.E. teacher presented it in such a way that we didn’t know it was a test. ... He met only with those of us who qualified for the award to tell us we had accomplished it. I barely missed the cutoff for the shuttle run I think it was, so he had me come in and he told me how much time I need to shave off. He gave me another chance.
Loved the challenge! Think it is wonderful to celebrate children who have motor, cardiovascular, and body awareness strengths. Encouraging physical fitness not only supports health, but also cognition and academic success.
It always motivated me to try harder. This P.E. teacher is pumped health and fitness are making their way back into the conversation.
I felt confident to succeed in other things. Physical fitness is also a key ingredient to classroom success. We need bring back more time for outside recess; both structured and unstructured play time.
‘Go, you chicken fat, go!’
A few educators who went to school in the 1960s remembered “Chicken Fat,” a six-minute song recorded by the John F. Kennedy administration to play while children exercised.
