The President's Physical Fitness Test
Maintenance Phase
Aubrey Gordon & Michael Hobbes
4.8 • 16.3K Ratings
🗓️ 20 October 2020
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The shuttle run! The flexed arm hang! The v-sit reach! These terms are seared into the memories of an entire generation of American schoolchildren. But did the President's Physical Fitness Test actually make us fitter? (Spoiler: lol no)
Thanks to Ashley Smith for editing assistance and Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!
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Links!
- The Report That Shocked The President
- JFK’s Sports Illustrated article, “The Soft American”
- 1958–2008: 50 Years of Youth Fitness Tests in the United States
- The President's Council on Physical Fitness and the Systematisation of Children's Play in America
- Why is there so little critical physical education scholarship in the United States? The case of Fitnessgram
- The Modern Era: Blossoming of the Olympic Movement and the Conquest of Acute Disease
- The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports: The First 50 Years
- Do Fitness Test Performances Predict Students’ Attitudes And Emotions Toward Physical Education?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everybody and welcome to Maintenance Phase where we will tell you all about the hidden |
| 0:15.5 | histories of health, wellness and, you know, your worst memories from childhood. |
| 0:20.7 | That's remarkably accurate today. |
| 0:24.2 | I mean, unfortunately. |
| 0:25.6 | I don't know anyone who felt affirmed by this particular thing. |
| 0:29.2 | I'm Aubrey Gordon. |
| 0:30.2 | I'm a writer and author and fat lady about town and I can't shut up about my new dog. |
| 0:35.2 | Oh yeah, we have a special guest today sitting on your bed behind you. |
| 0:39.0 | Yeah, that's right. |
| 0:40.0 | Finde's all. |
| 0:41.0 | I'm here with my co-host, Michael Hobbs. |
| 0:44.0 | Petless Michael Hobbs, a reporter for HuffPost. |
| 0:47.1 | And today we're talking about the President's Physical Fitness Test, which is a site of intense |
| 0:52.8 | trauma for, it appears like 97% of American children. |
| 0:57.7 | I've seen very few people that are like, that was great. |
| 1:01.8 | Glad I did it. |
| 1:02.8 | I will say, I have like a couple of good, like I really liked being like a surprisingly |
| 1:07.9 | flexible fat kid. |
| 1:09.6 | Oh. |
| 1:10.6 | There were a couple of things that I was really good at. |
| 1:12.0 | Oh yeah. |
| 1:13.0 | But pull ups are a nightmare that never ends. |
... |
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