No matter the age group, students have always found school work difficult to deal with. Some students pay for a private tutor, others rely on siblings, parents or friends to give them a little extra help. But is this help enough? For the majority of students, this kind of help does not last. Siblings have their own studies. Parents forget the material. Friends have their own homework and tests to worry about. Private tutors become expensive over time. Eventually for students help runs out, and they are left in the dark. With no source to turn to, students’ grades lower and tests become increasingly harder to pass.

Having a hard time in school is a dilemma experienced by students of every background, ethnicity, race, age and gender. It also does not matter what that student’s parents do for a living, be it a neuroscientist or a garbage collector. This hard-pressing issue affects every family and every student around the world.

Although this tidbit of information might sound alarming, there is a solution to it. The TCU community has exemplified this solution. TCU students have been offering their free time to tutor the children of the faculty and the staff employed at the university. This tutoring is completely free. The children only need to show up to the Tucker Technology Center with their questions and their subject material. TCU students take care of the rest.

"Free tutoring is a fantastic idea. If this kind of program was branched out to other children [outside of the TCU community], it would be well received. The important thing is that TCU students are able to help the community with free tutoring,” Rachel Deter, a class of 2015 writing major, said. “Maybe if this part of the program continues to go well, then perhaps it should branch out to be a great resource for college students and non-college students alike.”

Everything Deter said is true. This program is the first step for an overall solution to the school epidemic sweeping the world. What would make this whole program a hundred times better? The goal that the university students are aiming for is to help those children in need of tutors. However, TCU is a small campus. Compared to the world, the children of the faculty and the staff employed at the university make up a very small population of the children in need of school help. The TCU community needs to reach out and give free tutoring to any child able and willing to show up. This would benefit a lot more children in need of the luxury of a tutor.

Yolanda Mashni is a sophomore mechanical engineering from Fort Worth, Texas.