Going screen-free is an emphasis in many schools right now, as is building emotional intelligence. Perhaps that is why Bridge is really attractive to some kids. You can also teach math, focus, and teamwork, and you don’t have to know how to play.
Bridge Hall of Famer Patty Tucker created JumpStart Bridge, a free curriculum that has reached more than 12,000 students. It comes with scripts, videos, supplies, and a stipend for teachers who have never dealt a hand.
I found it odd this past school year when I brought a deck of cards, and it became my students’ favorite way to end the day. In a world where there are so many screens, I think that kids are really responding to timeless classic games like Bridge. Teachers are liking it too. JumpStart Bridge gives you all of the curriculum for free and a stipend for teachers who put in the program. Today’s Fab Idea Friday brings you an idea you might not have thought about. For those of you who sign up, let me know how it goes!
Patty Tucker has taught bridge for more than 30 years. Here’s what happens when kids put down screens and pick up a deck of cards.
Here’s where the facts in this episode come from, with the time stamp so you can hear each one. Checked October 8, 2026.
This transcript was generated using AI and has been reviewed by humans for accuracy. Minor errors or artifacts may remain but I worked my best to find any issues with the transcript as I reviewed the show. – Vicki
Vicki Davis (00:00): Happy Fab Idea Friday, episode 1005. Today, we’re talking about screen-free fun that can also help kids with math. The card game, bridge. You don’t know bridge, you don’t have to. There’s a free curriculum for kids with scripts and videos and even a stipend. Today, consider dealing your students in.
Announcer (00:23): This is the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast with your host, Vicki Davis.
Vicki Davis (00:28): In schools today, there are many people calling for screen-free options to build student brains. Today, we have one of those options for you. Patty Tucker is a Bridge Hall of Famer teaching kids to play bridge. Her program, JumpStart Bridge, has reached more than 12,000 students. Teachers say something surprising is happening. Better focus, better math, and better grades. So, Patty, explain what the game of a bridge is and why you think that it’s really helping kids think better.
Patty Tucker (01:02): The game of bridge is a partnership game. The kids are actually going to be working with another child to be successful. It teaches a lot of teamwork. It’s a trick-taking game. There is a lot of strategy. There’s a lot of math. But I think some of the social aspects are even more valuable than the academic aspects. The kids learn about getting along with people that they may not have met before. They meet new people and they have to learn how to work together to accomplish a goal. One of the things that I love about bridge and that some of the teachers have found remarkable is it teaches you a good life lesson too. In bridge, some things are not always going to go exactly the way you want them to on every single hand that you play. In bridge, something goes wrong, you’re not successful, you don’t quit. You can’t quit in the middle of the hand. You have to do plan B and finish the hand. And if that hand doesn’t go well, well, you know what? The game isn’t over. You still have to go to the next hand. So just learning that things are not always going to go the way that you want them to, but you just keep on trying, I think is a really important lesson. And the kids have a lot of fun. They really enjoy it.
Vicki Davis (02:13): Patty, what age student is ideal to start learning bridge?
Patty Tucker (02:18): Fourth grade, but the majority of the kids that are in the program are ages 9 through 13, so it’s third through eighth grade, a smattering of even first and second graders and a smattering of high school students. But elementary and middle school seems to be kind of the sweet spot. They are looking for new things. Their minds are still stretching to find that thing that’s going to be what they want to do for the rest of their life or what they’re interested in. And I think they have a little bit more flexibility.
Vicki Davis (02:51): I have quite a few family members who love bridge. It is a partnership game. You are playing with a partner. How do you go about teaching? Are there resources that teachers can use? Because they’ve got so much going on, but they’re like, oh my goodness, I’m not an expert. How do I even start?
Patty Tucker (03:06): Well, I took that into account when I wrote the curriculum. The curriculum is designed for a non-bridge player to be able to teach someone else how to play bridge. And we ran some surveys after the first year. And on a scale of like one to four, we got all threes and fours for the curriculum. Everybody thought that the curriculum was well-written and that the resources were great. Boy, that was a relief, let me tell you. I wanted everything to be good. But there’s a teacher manual that I wrote as a teacher’s, like their work plan. It tells you supplies, objectives for each lesson. I timed it out, and I gave them a script even. And there’s also videos of me teaching each of those eight lessons. Of course, I didn’t expect the teachers to read the script. They’re going to use their own words, but I have a lot of teachers that are looking at the videos. They’re working in the workbook. They’re using the PowerPoint and actually teaching themselves before they then go teach it to their child. And they’re working kind of class by class. I do a monthly Zoom that they can come ask questions. One of them got on there and said, I’m two weeks ahead of them, but I need to get this down. And so she had questions about a certain part of it. Throughout the country, there are bridge players everywhere. I can usually find someone. If a teacher wants someone to come in and just help them for one class or help them for an hour, I can find people that are willing to pop in or come over and talk to them and get them straightened out. But we supply for free every piece of student workbooks, teacher manuals, videos, all the playing supplies. Everything is free. You just register your class with us, tell us how many students that you’re going to be teaching, and we send you the supplies. The American Contract Bridge League, ACBL, and the ACBL Educational Foundation, and a lot of private donors are behind us, and that’s where most of our funding comes from.
Vicki Davis (04:59): Those teachers that repeat and come back to you, what are they saying are the benefits of having bridge in their classroom?
Patty Tucker (05:05): A lot of different things. One teacher was telling me that the attendance at school was better, that they weren’t tardy on Tuesdays because Tuesday was bridge. They were not going to be tardy and miss bridge. But the kids are excited to learn. They’re excited to be working with each other. They’re having a good time. And I think everybody knows that if you are enjoying yourself and vested in something you’re learning, that you’re more likely to be successful at it. So the kids are interested in learning more. In bridge, the way that everything is set up, there’s a new technique that ACBL has been working on called bridge battle, which is for teachers that maybe don’t know how to play and they’re a little bit nervous and they don’t play cards. It’s kind of a gateway into bridge. It’s just fun and it’s just, this is how you play a hand. This is how you take a trick. And then the curriculum just slowly builds throughout the thing. I thought that some of the teachers and the kids would want to take it very, very slowly. Instead, the reports I’m getting is they want to know what’s next. The kids are driving how quickly they learn. In Kalispell, Montana, last year they had a bridge tournament at the local bridge club for the school. This year they had to do the tournament over three days because they had so many kids that were involved in bridge and that wanted to play that they didn’t have enough room. They had over 350 kids over a three-day period, sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade participated in a bridge tournament. They’re expecting even more next year.
Vicki Davis (06:36): This year, I brought a couple decks of cards just on a whim. I have a computer lab. I was amazed that the most popular thing in my classroom were those decks of cards. It’s not just nostalgia. This generation, some of them moving away from screens. And I know that us adults want the kids to move away from screens and interact with each other. We know that learning to read body language and cooperative type activities where you’re building emotional intelligence are so vitally important. It’s counterintuitive, but I don’t think it’s surprising to see how many are moving towards bridge.
Patty Tucker (07:13): It was November of 2023. We went to a national gifted conference. And what some of the teachers told me was that the children coming out of those COVID years, they were tired of doing things online and the teachers were tired of having to teach online. But one thing they noticed was the social skills that the kids develop, especially when they go from like elementary to middle school or middle to high school, were, might be stunted. They didn’t have those years that they went as they crossed from elementary to middle or further on. So they were actively looking for things that had the kids working together. I have one poster that we put up at the conferences, which is bridge do’s and don’ts. And it’s about manners and it’s about how you treat your partner and how you treat your opponents. And they love it because those are the things that the kids didn’t have a chance to kind of practice over that two years of COVID. We did an essay contest, and one of the eighth grade students wrote this. She said, face-to-face interaction is scarce these days, and most get lost in screens. So it’s important we don’t lose the art of bridge. She was recognizing that face-to-face interaction wasn’t there the way it used to be. I grew up playing cards and games with my family. And a lot of the kids nowadays haven’t ever played cards. They’re not familiar. The lessons start with this is a deck of cards and ace is the highest and two is the lowest. And these are the suits, you know. So we really do start from the beginning.
Vicki Davis (08:45): So we’ve been talking with Patty Tucker. She’s a Bridge Hall of Famer and she’s working with JumpStart Bridge. So Patty, tell us how teachers can find your resources.
Patty Tucker (08:55): It’s on our website, jumpstartbridge.org. Everything is there. There’s a place that you can order your supplies. It’s through the American Contract Bridge League. Yes, you do have to sign up as a member, but you join as a guest member. There’s no charge or anything involved. They just do everything by number. If you have any questions about what you should be ordering, feel free to call, text me. I can answer any questions you have and I can walk you through it. We’re happy to do that.
Vicki Davis (09:24): If you’re looking for screen-free alternatives and alternatives that build emotional intelligence, check out Patty Tucker’s work and what she’s doing with JumpStart Bridge. Thanks for coming on the show, Patty.
Announcer (09:34): Thank you for tuning in to 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Join us here every weekday and subscribe to the Classroom Matters newsletter. See you later, educator.
Having played bridge since age 11 it’s no wonder that Patty is passionate about bridge! Patty is the founder of Atlanta Junior Bridge which was created in 2006 to offer bridge to children for free. An ACBL Best Practices Teacher/Trainer and American Bridge Teacher Association Master Teacher, Patty brings over 30 years experience to the program as a teacher and a writer. Patty was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 2019.
If you try bridge with your students, I’d love to hear how the first hand goes.
