Social Asset

In San Francisco high schools, one of the most popular extracurricular activities is contract bridge. Last year parents of students at Marina Junior High School got up a petition and persuaded School Superintendent Joseph P. Nourse, against his better judgment, to give bridge official standing: as an "experiment," Marina pupils were permitted to form a bridge club, spend one school period a week in practical study of their subject. The bridge club shortly became the biggest in the school.

Last week Superintendent Nourse, decreeing that "the common playing card" was not an educational material, unceremoniously ended the experiment. His decree threw San Francisco's school system into a furor. Indignant parents formed a committee, circulated petitions, marched to Mr. Nourse's office and demanded that contract bridge be made a part of the curriculum. Besides teaching youngsters 1) citizenship, 2) mathematics, 3) how to think, they declared that contract bridge was necessary to their children's vocational training. Explained Mrs. D. R. Minton: "I feel contract bridge is a social asset for my daughter's later life."

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