Custom Fields not showing in screen options

I just installed a new wordpress site there are no active plugins, I’m using the twenty eleven theme and the database is up to date. Yet when I go to screen options to activate my custom fields the check box to do so is not there.

I’ve been looking all over the web for the last few hours, and most of what I see is one year or older and when the custom fields were moved to the screen options and no one knew about it.

I’ve added the <?php the_meta(); ?> and <?php get_post_meta(); ?> to the themes loop, but still the custom fields box that normally displays in the post/page editor is not to be found. And no I didn’t add the two codes ate h same time, yes I did check the screen options after adding the above code.

I did find a post saying that custom fields were only allowed on .org sites. But I have several .com sites with different themes that have custom feilds available.

Any help for this issue would be greatly appreciated