Culture and Education
Education and culture are also key components for the Youth edition. Not only does the education/culture aspect apply to athletes and participants, but also youth around the world and inhabitants of the host city and surrounding regions. To this end a Culture and Education Program (CEP) will be featured at each Games. The first CEP at the 2010 Singapore Games featured events that fostered cooperation amongst athletes of different nations. It had classes on topics ranging from health and fitness to the environment and career planning. Local students from Singapore made booths at the World Culture Village that represented each of the 205 participating National Olympic Committee. The Chat with Champions sessions were the most popular portion of the program. Participants were invited to hear inspirational talks given by former and current Olympic athletes.
Emphasis on exchange goes beyond the CEP. Another unique feature of the Youth Olympic Games are mixed-gender and mixed-national teams. Triathlon relays, fencing, table tennis, archery and mixed swimming relays are a few of the sports in which athletes from different nations and mixed genders can compete together. YOG organizers are also using social media such as Facebook, Flikr, and Twitter as key platforms for engaging young athletes before, during, and after each celebration of the Games. Multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and multi-age requirements are the targets of the program, which stress the themes of "Learning to know, learning to be, learning to do, and learning to live together".
Read more about this topic: Youth Olympic Games
Famous quotes containing the words culture and/or education:
“Popular culture is seductive; high culture is imperious.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Infants and young children are not just sitting twiddling their thumbs, waiting for their parents to teach them to read and do math. They are expending a vast amount of time and effort in exploring and understanding their immediate world. Healthy education supports and encourages this spontaneous learning.”
—David Elkind (20th century)