In recent years, the National Education encourages the practice of bridge at school. At the Collège des Célestins, a dozen students practice bridge regularly. A way to have fun while developing useful knowledge for the school path.
While others are playing the latest fashionable games on their smartphones, these fourteen-year-old students from the College des Célestins have chosen … the bridge! Far from clichés about the advanced age of bridgeurs, it is also practiced at school.
For the past four years, Mireille Durin has been involved in classes as a school brigade instructor. Today, she shares her passion with more than fifty students from four schools: the Saint-Joseph College in Cusset, the Jean-Rostand College in Bellerive-sur-Allier, the Brugheas Primary School and the Collège des Celestine.
In the Vichy school, a dozen students of 4e2 unfolds the green carpet between noon and two, every Tuesday. “Here, it’s” second year “, says Mireille Durin. It is difficult to retain young people two years in a row but here we have young people very motivated. To keep the interest of young people, the instructor organizes a school bridge tournament every quarter.
“We try to encourage children to practice this sport of the spirit because it is very interesting, stimulating. Bridge develops different intellectual qualities, empathy with the partner, imagination in space, and memorization.
Often perceived as a difficult game and not very affordable, school bridge is accessible to the greatest number. “The initiations can begin around ten years without problem, everything is a question of rhythm,” says Mireille Durin. Currently, students are preparing for the regional championship whose finals will be held May 17 in Clermont-Ferrand to then go to the championships in France, and why not the world that will take place this year in Lyon. Last year four college students from the school went to the national final in Paris. They finished third in quadrette in the category 1st year.
But beyond the competition, the bridge also allows to approach mathematics in a new light. “It’s a good complement to the course because we work mental calculation, coding with the auction system, memory and probabilities because we must know how to anticipate and understand what will happen depending on what has happened, and was played, says Franck Viguier, professor of mathematics in the school. The bridge also develops a lot of attention and concentration. ”
“A school of life”
Intellectual faculties certainly, but also human qualities. “It’s important to let the students associate by affinity,” says the professor. It motivates them and it contributes to the pleasure of the game. To play with two is to engage as much as oneself. Through the game, they make the learning of the well-being, important to build and take responsibility. It is a situation, among many others, that school bridge is also presented as a school of life. ”
But kids, are they really having fun? Alban, Thomas, Julien, Mathis, Logan, Yoland and the others are unanimous. ” Yes ! It changes a bit, it’s not like other card games. We are master of our own decisions. We must make choices, put our tactics in place and anticipate the game of others. And it helps us a lot to be comfortable with the numbers. “Proof that despite all the screens, card games are not about to stay on the floor.
Don’t forget – you can still enter for the 6th World Youth Open Bridge Championships being held in Croatia from 20 – 29 August.
