Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/special-report-child-care-at-the-96-summer-olympics/5011112/
The 1996 Summer Olympics was a landmark event for the child care profession! This year much ado was made about new events added to the Olympics. Beach volleyball, ballroom dancing, and mountain biking received major coverage in their premier appearance at the Olympics. However, one new event - the Directors' Decathlon - was largely overlooked by the world press. Anticipating this snub, I flew to Atlanta and covered both days of the child care competition.Years ago, three veteran directors, bemoaning their plight over a couple of root beers at a SECA conference in Tulsa, hit upon the Directors' Decathlon as a means of gaining recognition for the world's greatest early childhood administrators. To truly test the tenacity of directors, the decathlon's creators selected ten activities to simulate a day in the life of a child care director.
The Directors' Decathlon was an immediate success. Soon directors from around the world were flocking to local and regional competitions in order to display their unique talents. The 1991 Cincinnati Directors' Decathlon was even covered on ABC's Weird World of Sports.
However, the event was nearly banned from the Olympics when a director from Smurfland Day Care in Des ...