In many countries, the terms physical education and sport are used together to describe the academic discipline that we commonly refer to as physical education in the US. However, the US is unique because we offer interscholastic sport competition. Only a handful of other countries do this. Others rely on independent club amateur, semi-pro, and professional leagues for competitive sports. Because of the coupling of athletic competition to academic institutions, physical educators have found it difficult to coexist with athletic personnel. Consequently, athletics and physical education have always had different goals and more or less have followed divergent paths in their development in the US.

Historical evidence supports that the organized sports movement in the US developed independent of physical education. In fact, physical education has a long history of autonomy from sport. The German system focused on strength training and the ability to hold certain body positions and movements related to gymnastics. Many other early physical educators focused on anthropometrics, calisthenics, and health concerns. Sport has influenced physical education, as many American physical educators have implemented popular sports in their curriculum. The convergence of all of these philosophies came to fruition in the Battle of the Systems. However, organized sport over the years seems to follow a separate path. Athletics developed largely as a student initiative at schools and later administrators decided to take control of the activities. Even today the academic discipline is becoming more specialized (biomechanics, sport psych, health, motor learning, etc.) with physical education viewed as a specific area that focuses on teaching lifetime skills and adherence to fitness principles.

The "New PE" is about learning new and fun activities without playing sports like 5 on 5 basketball or 6 on 6 volleyball. (Note: the New PE discussed in the textbook is different from the New PE being discussed today among physical educators) On the other hand, you do see some popular methods of teaching that rely on traditional sports called the "Sport Education Model." However, the physical education today still seems to have little influence on organized sport and vice verse.

The quality of the teacher is an important contribution to the participants' outlook on physical education. The lack of good PE teaching has resulted in limited support for physical education in many school districts. It is very important to have a solid philosophy in physical education teaching (and in sports) to ensure your participants get maximum enjoyment from the activity. Traditionally physical education has focused on physical fitness and health concerns with a limited focus on development of sport skills. More recently, physical education has transformed into various emphases depending on the philosophy of the teacher.

The physical education classes you may have experienced growing up focused more on development of sport skills because your teacher was also a coach. On the other hand, "sport" is a general term referring to organized games that foster various values, particularly leisure and entertainment. The distinction between sport and physical education is important to make. For these reasons, I have outlined separate topics on the history of physical education and the history of sport. Although I believe there should be more common ground between physical education and sport, unfortunately both worlds prefer to remain separate. Pure physical education teachers (as opposed to coaches who reluctantly teach PE classes) prefer to be distinct because they uphold academic standards. Coaches and athletes, both scholastic and professional, enjoy the prestige and excitement of athletics. Thus, they prefer their elite status and shun the restraints of academic concerns and the intellectual criticism. This friction goes all the way back to the Battle of the Systems. It is important to note that these are just generalizations and many individuals fall more in the middle.

I believe the key difference between PE and sports (or athletics) is the divergent goals of each program. Physical Education teachers are trying to include everyone and inspire a lifetime dedication to fitness and activity. On the other hand, the goal of organized sport is narrow the participants down until you have the most elite competitors. In turn, this results in more of a spectacle that is good for business. Thus physical education seeks to include everyone, while sport excludes.