Main Line Math Project: High School Students Tutor Kids for Free

LOWER MERION, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Math can be a challenging subject for kids in any grade. To help students stay on track and really learn to love the subject, there's something really special happening right now in the Lower Merion School District.

It's called Main Line Math Project, a free tutoring service courtesy of local high school students who are using their free time to give back to their community.

"You can see the kids learn to love math through watching other kids that they look up to, which is nice," says Matthew Moskow, the Founder and President of Main Line Math Project.

Moskow is a senior at Harriton High School.

His idea was to connect students and tutors for free and give high school students a way to earn community service hours for college.

"Me and my friend Marina, we sort of realized after talking to a lot of our friends, that tutors are starting to cost like $80 to $100 an hour," he says. "A lot of parents couldn't really cover it, and it was becoming a burden to a lot of families."

With pandemic learning loss, Moskow says the service has been meaningful and critical for so many families.

"A lot of people rely on us," he says. "We've also helped special education children. It's been really great. There's a tutor to cover every need."

Right now, there are 42 tutors at the ready every Sunday at the Ludington Library in Bryn Mawr, working with students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

"She made it more fun than it's supposed to be at school," said one 5th grader about her tutor.

"My favorite part about it is that when you have the younger kids who don't really want to spend their Sundays doing math with their parents, because they sort of think of it as a chore, they come in and they'll see our kids who they look up to as role models," Moskow says.

Those role models, the tutors, earn community service hours for college, while also making real, meaningful connections to their community

"They'll come and they'll be excited to teach the kids," he says. "They play games with them in a way that teaches them math. They'll make a dance to help the kid remember a certain mathematical formula. We had one tutor do 70 jumping jacks because a kid got a math problem right. We make it into a fun thing for the community, which is nice.

The free tutoring sessions are between noon and 2 p.m. on Sundays at the Ludington Library in Bryn Mawr.

Any student who can make it there can sign up.

Click here for details.