The 1996 Surgeon General?s Report (SGR), "Physical Activity and Health," was one of the more significant U.S. Federal documents to outline national priorities for health and physical activity. In this monograph Marlene Tappe and Charlene Burgeson and Stephen Cone remind us that "Physical Activity and Health" was the third in a series of Surgeon General reports focused on the health of the U.S. Population over the last 40 years. The first was the 1960 SG report titled "Tobacco and Health" and the second, published in 1988, focused on "Nutrition and Health." Of the three, the 1996 report has had most relevance to the physical education profession because it spoke directly to our primary concern, physical activity or human movement. The editors? decision to devote a "Journal of Teaching in Physical Education" monograph to a critique of the relationships between physical education, physical activity, and public health using the 1996 SGR as a watershed was insightful. Sport pedagogists and public-health professionals alike can benefit. Their invitations to the lead authors working in the U.S. and the U.K. to write about these relationships globally and the implications for physical education and teacher education have resulted in a thought-provoking monograph. These authors represent U.S. leaders of professional organizations as well as a diversity of national and international scholars from sub-disciplines in our field including sociology, epidemiology, exercise physiology, and sport pedagogy. All have brought to their task expertise in and passion for quality physical activity and/or physical education. In this article, the author responded to these ideas and provide a careful analysis of the relationships between physical education, physical activity, and public health and the appropriate roles for physical education and teacher education in this contemporary discourse. (Contains 3 notes.)