Impact of the Surgeon General’s Report: Through the Eyes of Physical Education Teacher Educators

Abstract

Things change in physical education, but changes are often slow and might go unnoticed. Termed the “chameleon of all curricula” (McKenzie, 2001), physical education has historically played a utilitarian role and has adapted both to meet societal needs and to survive as a profession. The founding fathers of physical education in North America were primarily medical doctors, and their focus on physical fitness and health has held remarkably steadfast over time. This occurred despite attempts to take the profession in different directions, often to the angst of important leaders such as Eleanor Metheney, who stated 40 years ago, “We are back where we started from a hundred years ago, and the tattered old biological banner of physical fitness is again waving triumphantly from our educational battlements.” (Metheney, 1965, p.101). While the “fitness first” banner has been recycled as the main goal of physical education for nearly 150 years, it has rarely been unfurled in the name of public health. Rather, it was waved to engage individuals in the pursuit of personal fitness pursuits or prepare citizenry for battle during wars (e.g., World Wars I and II, Korean Conflict) and establish national pride in sports (e.g., Olympic Games), and fitness (e.g., Kraus-Webber testing) competitions. Physical fitness and physical activity are both associated with health, but it is important to distinguish between them. Physical fitness is an outcome, whereas physical activity is a process—one frequently defined as “any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure” (Caspersen, 1989, p. 425). Physical fitness has historically been considered the pathway to healthful living (Hockey, 1989), and physical education has focused on it, often to the exclusion of physical activity (Freedson & Rowland, 1992), particularly if the activity was of low or moderate intensity. Toward the end of the 20th century the profession began to stress exercise engagement—a subcategory of physical activity that demands activity be performed at an intensity high enough to produce biological changes. Fitness and fitness tests have traditionally been associated with sports excellence (i.e., skill-related fitness; Hunsicker & Reiff, 1966), but in the mid 1970s professional organizations began to emphasize health-related fitness in their testing programs (e.g., Blair, Falls, & Pate, 1983). As a result, most school students in the past 30 years have been assessed using one or more health–fitness batteries