A new state law makes the new version of the Presidential Fitness Test a required part of P.E. classes.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., joined Iowa Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Newton yesterday to promote the test. “I can remember doing these,” Miller-Meeks said. “I’m not the biggest kid, so I wasn’t the fastest kid, but nonetheless it’s emphasizing the fun of what you’re doing and getting kids moving and how that translates to other activities they may want to do.”
Miller-Meeks and Kennedy met with a group of kids at the YMCA in Newton who were trying some of the required exercises. The first national Presidential Fitness Test was conducted in 1956. The test was ended by the Obama Administration in 2013 and replaced with a program promoting heathy eating and physical activity. Secretary Kennedy said retiring the phyisical fitness test was a mistake.
“The sedentary condition of many of our children is contributing to this malaise, to the mental health crisis, to the physical fitness crisis, to the chronic disease crisis in our country,” Kennedy said.
All students from kindergarten through high school will get a certificate for taking the test, but to win the Presidential or National Fitness Award, there are certain benchmarks. For example, a 10 year old boy will have to do things like hold the plank position for nearly two minutes or run a mile in less than eight minutes in order to win an award.
