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 Monday to promote the test.
Miller-Meeks and Kennedy met with a group of kids at the Y-M-C-A 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 says retiring the phyisical fitness test was a mistake.
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.
