Dr. Charles B. (Chuck) Corbin developed the first college-level personal fitness text at Texas A & M in the 1970s. He published the first high school personal fitness text, Fitness for Life, in 1979. The first edition of the high school text was created prior to the development of national physical education standards. Lacking such standards, the authors consulted with teachers and experts in the field to develop program objectives that were appropriate for students in grades 9-12. These objectives served as a model for many states that subsequently developed physical education standards. The authors of Fitness for Life served as consultants to many different states as they developed standards for physical education, including standards for required personal fitness courses in states such as Florida and Texas.
By the time the fourth edition of Fitness for Life was published in 1997, national standards for physical education had been developed. The fourth edition was designed to meet selected NASPE standards, but it should be noted that previous editions (the first edition in 1979, second edition in 1985, and third edition in 1990) met most of these standards, even though the standards were not available at the time. Subsequent editions of Fitness for Life have been planned with national and selected state standards in mind. Correlations documents matching Fitness for Life content to standards for selected states are found in the Using FFL section of this web site:
Correlations
Using the design-down method of curriculum development, Dr. Corbin and his co-authors Guy Le Masurier and Dolly Lambdin developed Fitness for Life: Middle School, which was introduced in 2007. It was developed specifically for middle school youth based on NASPE and selected state standards specifically for grades 6-8. The program is designed to articulate with the high school Fitness for Life program, not duplicate it. The middle school program is meant to provide a solid foundation for students who will ultimately enroll in a high school Fitness for Life program.
Like the high school Fitness for Life program, the middle school program is designed to meet selected physical education objectives. Fitness for Life is not meant to be a total physical education program but an important part of a total program designed to meet selected specific physical education standards and objectives. The middle school program meets selected goals for grades 6-8 while the high school program focuses on goals for grades 9-12.
After the successful launch of Fitness for Life: Middle School, Dr. Corbin turned his focus to the final step of the designing-down progress, the creation of Fitness for Life: Elementary School. Meg Greiner, an award-winning elementary physical education teacher, was added to the Corbin, Le Masurier, and Lambdin team for the development of the elementary level program. In addition, numerous contributors were used to ensure program content was developmentally appropriate throughout and the teacher resources were easy to use.
