written by John
Kilbourne, Movement Science, Grand Valley State University
Fifty two years ago this month (December 26, 1960) President
Elect John F. Kennedy wrote an article in Sports Illustrated
titled, "The
Soft American." In the article
he chronicled the consistent decline of America's youth in
regard to physical fitness. He cited as references several
studies including the Kraus-Weber
study from Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
In regard to the Kraus-Weber study he said, "The findings
showed that despite our unparalleled standard of living, despite
our good food and our many playgrounds, despite our emphasis
on school athletics, American youth lagged far behind Europeans
in physical fitness (Kennedy, 1960)."
Kennedy went on to say that, "Over the past five years
the physical fitness of American youth has been discussed
in forums, by committees and in leading publications. A 10-point
program for physical fitness has been publicized and promoted.
Our schools have been urged to give increased attention to
the physical well-being of their students. Yet there has been
no noticeable improvement (Kennedy, 1960)." As I re-read
our late President's article on the "state" of our
country's well-being I said to myself, "This sounds too
familiar."
Fast forward fifty-two years and President Kennedy's
"Soft American" has become, "The Squashy American."
America's youth are in the worst shape of any time in our
recorded history. According
to the Centers for Disease Control, "Childhood obesity
has more than tripled in the past 30 years. Children who were
obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. And,
the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were
obese increased from 5% to 18% over the same period (Centers
for Disease Control, 2012)."
Physical inactivity has become today's norm. The recent report
Designed
to Move (A must read, http://designedtomove.org/).
says, "Recent research demonstrates the magnitude of
the world's shift toward physical inactivity. The findings
are alarming. In just 44 years (approximately 1.5 generations),
physical activity in the United States has declined 32 percent
and is on track for a 46 percent drop by 2030 (Designed to
Move, 2012: p. 2)."
The late President Kennedy said bluntly, "…our
growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness,
is a menace to our society (Kennedy, 1960)." In his article
he adds that physical fitness is vital to the activities of
both peace and war. He said, "We face in the Soviet Union
a powerful and implacable adversary determined to show the
world that only the Communist system possesses the vigor and
determination necessary to satisfy awakening aspirations for
progress and the elimination of poverty and want. To meet
the challenges of this enemy will require determination and
will and effort on the part of all Americans. Only if our
citizens are physically fit will they be fully capable of
such an effort (Kennedy, 1960)."
Fast forward again to 2012 and we witness a similar
plea from over one hundred retired Generals, Admirals, and
Senior Leaders of the United States Military. In their 2010
report titled, Too
Fat to Fight they say,
We know firsthand that national security must be America's
top priority.
Our organization recently released a report citing Department
of Defense data indicating that an alarming 75 percent of
all young Americans 17 to 24 years of age are unable to
join the military because they failed to graduate from high
school, have criminal records, or are physically unfit.
Being overweight or obese turns out to be the leading medical
reason why applicants fail to qualify for military service.
Today, otherwise excellent recruit prospects, some of them
with generations of sterling military service in their family
history, are being turned away because they are just too
overweight (Too
Fat to Fight, 2010).
In his article, President Kennedy put forward that the soft
American was a national problem that requires national attention.
He called for a national program consisting of four initiatives
to improve the fitness of Americans. The four initiatives
were as follows:
First: Establish a White House Committee on Health and
Fitness to formulate and carry out a program to improve
the physical condition of the nation.
Second: The physical fitness of
our youth should be made the direct responsibility of the
Department of Health, Education and Welfare. This department
should conduct research into the development of physical
fitness programs for the nation's public schools.
Third: The governor of each state
will be invited to attend an annual National Youth Fitness
Congress. The congress will examine the progress which has
been made in physical fitness during the preceding year
and exchange suggestions for improving existing programs.
Fourth: The President and all departments
of government must make it clearly understood that the promotion
of sports participation and physical fitness is a basic
and continuing policy of the United States (Kennedy, 1960).
President Kennedy, if he were still alive, would be saddened
to see the heartbreaking "state" of youth fitness
in the United States. Sadly, as noble as his initiatives were
they have not produced long-term action and results. Now fifty
years later we see similar initiatives on the federal level
that include research and advocacy from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's
Move program. In addition to these efforts, we see other
initiatives targeted aggressively at the grassroots level.
One very important and relevant initiative that targets the
grassroots level is the previously mentioned, Designed
to Move's physical activity action agenda. To date, the
materials put forward in Designed to Move are some
of the most comprehensive, and research based physical activity
action initiatives ever proposed. Their report's framework
consists of ten actions.
One: Special emphasis on childhood (Before
age 10). In a world of limited resources for investment,
this age group has the potential to deliver the most sustained
return.
Two: Design for
early positive experiences in physical education, sports,
and physical play. Promote compelling, inclusive options
for quality physical education, physically active play,
physical activity, and sports that compete with more sedentary
options that are available in kid's leisure time.
Three: Special
emphasis on schools as a foundation for impact. Physical
education should be prioritized within the school day and
truly treated as an integral part of a child's education,
on par with any other subject.
Four: Combine
resources at the community level. Rally at the community
level to identify resources and shared goals to ensure that
children have opportunities to engage in all forms of physical
play, physical fitness, and a variety of sports.
Five: Leverage
digital platforms. Digital innovations can make physical
activity fun, stimulate demand, and help children and program
providers to track progress.
Six: Invest in
and recruit diverse role models. Focus on both inspirational
role models, i.e., ones kids can identify with in their
own everyday lives, as well as aspirational role models
such as well-known athletes.
Seven: Design
physical activity into the built environment. Both public
and private players have significant roles to play in shaping
the built environment, and making it convenient for people
to engage in physical activity.
Eight: Align
sectors that share goals. Encouraging and supporting physical
activity should be a priority for all sectors, not just
the health and education sectors.
Nine: Challenge
misaligned incentive structures. Some customs, business
models, litigation fears, and even arbitrary decisions work
against encouraging populations to be physically active.
These need to be replaced.
Ten: Challenge
everyday signals that reinforce the current norm. Question
signals in the environment that say physical inactivity
is okay-e.g., bicycle paths and community sports facilities
locked up and inaccessible, a school day that eliminates
active recess, kids in strollers, etc. (Designed
to Move, 2012, p. 20-27).
Very important in moving from an agenda to real action, is
that participants be offered high-quality initial training
and development that enlightens them to the importance and
practice of each of the ten Designed to Move action
items. Some examples include the following:
One: Practicing physical education teachers
are provided with in-service education programs to retrain
and celebrate this new approach (See previous pelinks4u
article, We the New PE, http://www.pelinks4u.org/articles/kilbourne1_2012.htm.
Two: National, state and local sectors,
AAHPERD, NASPE, ACSM, etc. align and focus sharply on promoting
the ten items in research, at conferences, in print, and in
the media.
Three: Colleges and universities emphasize
the importance of the ten action items in the preparation
of teachers of every subject at all levels of education, K-college/university.
Four: Parents be brought on board through
the actions of schools, communities, employers, and their
faith communities (See previous pelinks4u article,
Having Faith in Physical Education, http://www.pelinks4u.org/articles/kilbourne10_2012.htm.
Five: Local communities, schools, and businesses
evaluate and restructure their built environments to promote
and enhance physical activity. For example, at my university
we recently added signage at the elevators to encourage people
to use the stairs.
My great hope is that fifty years from now someone else will
not be writing about how we have failed to adequately address
this important issue that President Kennedy brought into the
light more than fifty years ago. Without immediate action,
as put forward by the Designed to Move action agenda,
we may be looking back and writing about how Kennedy's soft
American went from squashy to mushy or worse. The time for
action is now!
John Kilbourne, Ph.D. is a professor of Movement Science
at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. He
is the author of the book, Running
With Zoe: A Conversation on the Meaning of Play,
Games & Sport.
