The Soft American: 2023 Edition
Back on December 26th, 1960 President John F Kennedy wrote a letter to the American people that was published in Sports Illustrated. This letter was a scathing review of the state of the American people and what this state would inevitably lead to. Below are the three pages from the original issue of Sports Illustrated and if you’re feeling real nostalgic here’s the original Sports Illustrated Issue from December 26th, 1960 with the President and his wife Jackie Kennedy on the cover.
He wasn’t pulling any punches. He even called American boys “doughy'“. He understood that a healthy body could yield a healthy mind and country. He knew where this would all eventually lead to and guess what folks? We’re here, it’s the future he warned about, and we’re suffering the consequences of our lack of control, our lack of knowledge and our inability to take responsibility for our own health.
The Presidential Fitness Challenge
It’s funny because I can now look back at the Presidential Fitness Test from when we were all growing up and laugh because it was kind of ridiculous. The sit and reach, the mile run/walk, push ups, flexed arm hang/pull ups and sit ups (partial curl ups) were all a part of this test. They even included body mass index as part of the test as well. They’re relatively remedial by today’s standards, but they were easy to teach and easy to replicate for PE teachers across the country. The tests aren’t a great metric for what we consider fitness by today’s standards but at least we had something.
I can remember wanting that gold certificate growing up so badly. But I wasn’t flexible enough to pass the sit and reach! Sadly I always ended up with the silver certificate because I wasn’t flexible, but what are ya gonna do?
This series of tests was installed by President Eisenhower when he created The President’s Council on Youth Fitness in 1956. The people responsible for creating the tests were Dr. Hans Kraus, Bonnie Prudden, and Sonja Weber. These tests were called the Kraus-Weber Tests. They were originally performed on 4,000 kids here in the US and the results were compared to 3,000 kids over in Europe, mainly Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. To the horror of Eisenhower, 58% of American kids failed this test while only 8% of those in Europe failed.
These results were widely circulated at the time and Eisenhower, in a panic, requested a sit down with Kraus and Prudden where they would present their findings to the President. Prudden said “Many youngsters have no bodies. Let youngsters climb trees and fences to develop their muscles.” This sit down gave way to the first Presidential Fitness Challenge.
The Original Presidental Fitness Challenge Tests
When Eisenhower first implemented the tests, they made some pretty serious changes that didn’t reflect the original test given to the 4,000 kids here in the US. The Presidential Fitness Challenge tests kids would perform were the following:
Pull Ups
Sit Ups
Standing Broad Jump
Shuttle Run
50 Yard Dash
Softball Throw
600 Yard Run
Now these probably look incredibly different from the tests you did in elementary and middle school if you grew up during the 1980s and 90s. Some of these tests were more geared toward military needs. This makes sense because these tests were designed by committees made up of military personnel. For example, pull-ups would be good for getting out of foxholes and trenches. The softball throw mimicked a grenade throw to a T. The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance designed these tests and some of its members argued that they more closely resembled military training than physical fitness tests for children. To be completely honest, if you threw in push-ups and a few isometric holds I’d say you have an all-encompassing fitness challenge that could really help you understand where your fitness lies.
Over the years the tests have changed. Some little tweaks here, and some minor adjustments there, but overall the test itself remained part of Americana until 2013 when it was replaced with the voluntary Presidental Youth Fitness Program. It is no longer mandatory to be active as a kid here in the US, which brings me to my next point. . . .
You May be Prediabetic
Right now in America, almost half of our population is dealing with Type II Diabetes. According to the CDC, 33% (96 million) of Americans are prediabetic and don’t even know it, while the Diabetic Research Institute Foundation finds that 11.3% (37 million) are full-blown type II diabetics. Almost 50% of the US population (not just adults) are either diabetic or prediabetic. And these numbers come from prior to the pandemic in 2019, so there’s actually a chance the number has gotten drastically worse.
Currently, approximately 13.8 children in every 100,000 have type II diabetes. Now this might not sound all that alarming because that’s what, 0.12% of that population? But understand this disease used to take half a lifetime to develop. This was a metabolic disease that affected older sedentary adults, not physically active children. What changed?
What Changed?
Well for starters, schools changed pretty drastically. When I was really young we lived in Tallahassee, Florida. We moved to Tampa right before 4th grade and it was such a change for me. I went to an elementary school called WT Moore in Tallahassee and we had PE three times per week and recess every single day. That’s a total of eight 30+ minute blocks where we had to go outside and play either in an organized fashion with PE or on our own during recess. That’s four hours of outside play during school hours. We were in school for approximately 35 hours a week, and 10-15% of that time was spent being outside playing.
When I moved to Tampa I went to Hunters Green Elementary and I remember looking forward to recess one day only to find out that we wouldn’t be having recess because we had PE that day. Our recess times were also a reflection of how much work we got done during the day. If a lesson dragged on longer than expected then our recess would get cut short. Sometimes our recess time would get scrapped altogether. Why was the work we were doing so important you ask? STANDARDIZED TESTING. The teachers’ union knew that some of their pay was tied to how we performed on these state-proctored tests, so they made sure we were prepared. I can’t tell you a single thing that was on those tests, but I can tell you that in fourth grade I got fat for the first time in my life, and it followed me for YEARS. I had body image problems until I was in high school because of how hard it became for me to lose weight back then.
Kids don’t move around throughout the day anymore. It’s led to a ton of mental and physical health issues from obesity to depression. Physical education is as important as our mental education, but it’s been thrown to the wayside to the demise of our children.
Another big change is how woven into our daily lives fast food has become. What was once a nice treat for the family has become our main source of food today. I can remember growing up and being so excited to get McDonald’s because we never had it. Mom always cooked, or dad always grilled at home.
Back in Tallahassee in 1993, we had the “Storm of the Century” which was a hurricane-like storm that came in well outside of hurricane season. There were winds as high as 90 mph, supposedly 44 tornados that touched down, and we even got snow in March in Tallahassee, Florida. It was crazy and as you could imagine nobody was prepared for this. There are three things I remember from this storm:
1 - We all slept on the floor in the living room in front of the fire.
2 - I woke up to the power coming back on in the middle of the night on day 2 and remember being kinda bummed out because it was really nice sleeping in the living room with everyone. I enjoyed that time with my family.
3 - We got to have McDonald’s because we had no power.
That’s how rare having fast food was for us. Whether it was a financial decision on my parent’s part, or they just knew how much healthier home-prepped food was for us we never got it. It was a legitimate treat for us to stop on the way home and grab food.
The two exceptions to this rule were that we would go to Morrisons or Applebees as a family after church on Sundays, and every Tuesday after gymnastics my dad would take me to Taco Bell because it was right by the gym.
Our kids don’t move, they eat literal garbage, and we’re sitting here wondering why they’re essentially dying of metabolic diseases that affect their bodies and their brains in the worst of possible ways. We’ve gotta figure all of this out or we’re gonna end up like the people scootin’ around in spaceships on Wall-E.
The Soft American 2023 Edition
We need to change our culture, and it starts at home. This is my open letter to every American that has kids right now. If you’re feeling slightly offended reading this, then good. This is directed at you.
Dear American Parents,
It’s 2023 and we need Kennedy’s letter more than ever. We’re the softest both physically and mentally that we’ve been as a culture EVER, and it’s almost like it’s being encouraged by our government and institutions. How many of your kids even have PE anymore? How many of them can do a push-up? JUST ONE PUSH-UP? How many would keel over and possibly have a heart attack if they had to run a mile without stopping? Could they run from danger if their life depended on it? Could they pull themselves back up if they slipped and fell off of something high? Could they pull themselves out of an overturned car without help?
I know a lot of these seem unlikely, and for the vast majority of you, these are after all fairly unlikely scenarios. But they aren’t impossible scenarios. They happen every day, and you need to ask yourself: Is your child physically fit enough to survive if they were put into a life-threatening situation? Or are they so physically unfit that if they found themselves in this kind of situation, it would cost them their life?
As a very new parent, I can relate to how much of your life gets eaten up by your little ones. My daughter is only four weeks old and I’m already exhausted and finding myself sacrificing things I need to do for myself in order to take care of her. Such is life, and I feel beyond blessed that I get to make those sacrifices to make her life better. But I’m still making sure I put myself in a position to set a good example for her both physically and emotionally.
Are you being the best version of yourself for your child? Are you setting a good example of how they should conduct themselves? Are you physically active, eating healthy, and making sure your children do the same?
Do your children see you sacrificing certain things in an effort to maintain your health? Or do they see you indulging at every turn?
Do they see you exercise, even just making an effort to go for a walk at the end of the day? Or do they see you sitting on the couch watching TV?
Do they get to see you set goals and work to achieve them? Or do they hear you blaming the world when the outcomes don’t fall in your favor?
Do your children understand the importance of the foods they put in their bodies? Do they understand the importance of moving around? Do they even understand how their bodies work? Do they have concepts of what calories are or how they affect their health?
Are you sober and present? Or do your children get the intoxicated version of you on even a semi-regular basis? That embarrassingly public drunken stupor that we’ve all found ourselves in at one point or another sets a relatively horrible example for your child. When your kids see you drink (and often) they see it as normal which can be dangerous down the road.
The above questions are tough ones to give answers to if you haven’t been taking care of yourself. They’re even tougher to answer if you’ve made no effort to educate your children (or even yourself) on the importance of physical exercise, nutrition, and healthy coping mechanisms.
Here’s something that you don’t want to hear and nobody wants to tell you: If you have an overweight and physically unhealthy/unfit child, it is your fault. 100% it’s your fault. You’re the adult, you’re in charge, and you’re to blame. You’re either allowing them to indulge far too often or not setting a good example for them in the home. Possibly both. You buy the food they eat, you buy the smart devices that they spend HOURS on, and you set the example.
American children are in the worst physical shape they’ve ever been in throughout the history of our country, and it’s showing its presence in their mental health. Diabetes, cardiac issues, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, low self-esteem; you name it, our kids are dealing with it at epidemic levels. There’s a ton of data to support mental health being tied directly to our physical health as well. We don’t go outside anymore, we don’t have physical goals anymore, we don’t know what it’s like to put in a long day of physical labor/hard physical work anymore, and we’ve completely lost purpose in a lot of ways.
Do you want to know what the most desired profession is for Gen Alpha and Z? It’s to be a social media influencer. They want to be internet famous because they’re addicted to attention, instead of purpose. Growing up we all wanted to be professional athletes, teachers, firemen, police officers, things like that. We didn’t have this addiction to attention and likes/follows. They see you (and their friends) on social media and don’t see how damaging it can be to tie your self-worth to the amount of attention and likes they get. Hell, we’ve got a serious issue with young women trying to make a living on OnlyFans not understanding that the internet is FOREVER. Once that stuff is out there you can’t get rid of it.
This needs to be fixed, and you can’t expect it to come from the top down. This change needs to happen from the bottom up. From the grassroots level. It has to start at home. Do you want to get your kid’s anxiety and/or depression in check? Get rid of the screens and social media, and get them outside in the sun to be physically active. Give them a purpose that involves short-term sacrifices that will lead to long-term gains. And please STOP with the constant structured play with their sports. Let them play a pickup basketball game with no adults. Let them go play street hockey against the kids down the street without any instruction from a coach. Let them figure things out without having a coach in their ear telling them exactly what to do at every step. There’s so much value in “figuring it out” and teaching yourself a skill with no instruction from an adult and we’ve lost that because everything sports related is instruction based.
Kids are soft today, both physically and mentally. They’re not being brought up in a culture that will allow them to deal with the world.
Are you overweight? No need to get healthier and active because “big is beautiful.” Even Lizzo is finally trying to exercise now but we’re so soft that she has to tell her audience she’s only exercising for her health, and not to lose weight. She wants to better herself, but can’t tell her fans because she doesn’t want the mob coming after her.
Is your relationship with a significant other not working out? No need to work on things just throw it away because “you deserve better” and there’s plenty of fish in the sea.
Are you not getting the minutes you feel like you deserve on your team? No need to put your nose to the grindstone and get to work, it’s the coach’s fault. Just hop to another team.
Did you lose a close hard-fought game? Totally not your fault, the refs had it out for you, and/or they had a few ringers and made it unfair.
We’re crippling our kids. Both physically and mentally they’re soft. They’re not prepared for life, and it’s our fault.
Let your kids fail. Let them get hurt. Let them figure things out on their own. Let them work really hard and be disappointed. Stop crippling them and get out of their way. Be there for them and guide them, but stop chewing their food for them and bubble-wrapping the world for them. It’s destroying them and the data shows it.
Love your children enough to get out of the way. Let them converse with their coaches when things go wrong. Let them stand up to bullies. Let them fail! Love them enough to let them be disappointed.
I’m not sure I have all the answers here, but what I do know is that what we’ve been doing for the past few decades isn’t working. We’re doughy, soft, mentally unstable, and the most unhappy we’ve ever been as a society, and it needs to change now.
