It started innocently enough four years ago when Sidney Rosen volunteered to teach bridge at P.S. 158 in Manhattan to a "talented and gifted" group of 4th graders. He teamed up with Anita Strauss of Library Power, [a project of the Fund for NYC Public Education, funded by the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. Additional local support is provided by the NYC public schools.] and classes were started in other schools for 4th, 5th and 6th-graders. The ACBL provided textbooks, T-shirts and a trophy for the end-of-term tournament. After the effort was publicized by Alan Truscott in the New York Times inquiries were received for the program to be implemented in other parts of the city.
Bill Rosenbaum, Chairman of the GNYBA, arranged for Alene Friedman to help augment the program, which she did and recruited the invaluable help of Linda Frank.
During the past school year, nine schools had bridge teachers. The classes were usually 8 weeks and ranged from 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours. There were concluding tournaments in each school and students were in groups of 12-28. Parents were encouraged to participate as well.
Anita Strauss reports that "I have had requests for this program from teachers and administrators outside of the Library Power program, including a school for the developmentally disabled. Bridge is waning in this country and we need to teach our youngsters how to play to ensure that the love of bridge is revitalized and sustained. When I was in college, bridge was played in the cafeteria, on the lawns, etc. Now, you seldom see college students participating in this outstanding mental activity and for many, obsession."
The librarians of Library Power helped the bridge teachers to teach on the appropriate student levels, felt that they learned along with the students and would all like the bridge course to continue next year.
The most inspiring comment from the librarians was: "Many of the children were included because they never got to do anything special. They were not the academically adept students but, surprisingly, often they became the best bridge players. Bridge tapped an intelligence the teachers had not reached, nor known existed."
The students were very interested in bridge and most of them maintained that interest throughout and beyond the course sessions. They asked to play in the library during lunch and wanted to play more than the course allowed. Their social skills improved, they helped one another and showed increased self-esteem. In one instance when neither the bridge teacher nor the librarian was present, they played anyway and even wrote the rules and recreated the charts usually drawn by the bridge teacher. The program enabled them to mix with children in different grades, on different levels and children in bilingual classes worked with children in monolingual classes.
The consensus feeling after the past year was that the children would lik e more than 8 sessions, need card holders and found the book too difficult.
More volunteers are needed if this program is to grow!