Jack Kingston: “We have an example in Savannah, GA, which I mentioned to Mr. Hoekstra about, of a weight lifting coach named Michael…”

“We have an example in Savannah, GA, which I mentioned to Mr. Hoekstra about, of a weight lifting coach named Michael Cone who actually had been an Olympic weight lifter, and he went to work in the school, worked in the school system for 10 years, and under his jurisdiction was the Presidential Fitness Program, and we all took the Presidential Fitness Program when we were growing up, and, as he described it very accurately, you go to the class and you say: All right kids, everybody come up here and do a pullup. Well, children really cannot do pull-ups. There are a few who can, but the majority of kids cannot. So what happens? One kid goes up and cannot do a pullup. The other 29 in the class say we are not trying because they know not trying is better than failure. And so you got one kid who has been humiliated, and 29 say we are not going to touch that ball. And what happened is the Presidential Fitness Program has become somewhat humiliating to some kids.”