Strangers helping strangers: NYC subway turns into math classroom

In a world that feels like it is delving into chaos, the kindness of strangers is exactly what we need.

Denise Wilson was on the subway to Brooklyn last week when she noticed a conversation between two complete strangers that just had to be documented.

"He was just telling this guy, 'I'm in my 40s and all of this is new to me, so I've got to re-learn this to teach my son because he failed a math test," Wilson told WCBS.

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The type of math at the center of the problems? Fractions.

The man sitting next to Corey Simmons said he used to be a math teacher and started going over the worksheets in the middle of the train.

"Everything he got wrong or was confused about, he broke it down and corrected him," Wilson wrote in her Facebook post.

So today omw from work the guy in the red sat down opend up his folder and started reading a few stops later the guy...

Posted by Denise Wilson on Tuesday, April 17, 2018

After the impromptu tutoring session, Simmons and the math tutor -- Wilson didn’t get his name -- got off the train at different stops.

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Simmons said that he’s about half way to understanding fractions, but there was something more important than math that came out of the chance meeting.

"You need help sometimes, and you shouldn't want to bite your tongue, to not ask for the help. So don't feel shy to ask someone for help. It's OK," Simmons told WCBS.

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