Yesterday, I got to thinking about high school. Specifically, I got to thinking about the Presidential Physical Fitness challenge. If you attended an American high school, you probably remember this challenge. In order to qualify for the Presidential Physical Fitness Award at the end of the school year, you had to participate in a number of "tests," including pull-ups, push-ups and my personal favorite, the "shuttle run," in which you had to sprint from a tape mark on the gym floor to another tape mark on the gym floor, pick up a wooden block, run back to the first tape mark, pick up another wooden block and run back to the second tape mark. This was all timed and your performance was scored against the challenge criteria.
Now, I fucking hated the Presidential Physical Fitness challenge. I've got nothing against physical fitness, mind, but this challenge was mandatory. Every single person had to pick up that wooden block and run back and forth like an idiot in front of the entire class, and then the gym teacher would shout out your time. I didn't especially suck at the tests; I never won the award, but I don't think I embarrassed myself (except for the time I decided to try and beat every girl at the run/walk mile and nearly vomited at the finish line). But imagine if you're an overweight kid running back and forth with that stupid block and then having your sub-par time bellowed out to the entire class. Gym class is unpleasant on the best of days. It was a goddamn nightmare on Presidential Physical Fitness challenge days.
Anyway, in addition to the Presidential Physical Fitness Award, there was also a Presidential Academic Fitness Award. You didn't have to take a test alone in front of the whole class and let the teacher read your grade aloud. Everyone over a certain GPA won it every year.
Today I went in search of the Presidential Physical Fitness and Academic Fitness Award sites. I only found one. Care to guess which?
Yes, that's right: As far as I can tell, there is no Web site for the Presidential Academic Fitness Award. Today, I wrote to the Department of Education to find out why.
I'm not holding my breath for a reply.
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