Jane Molnar, Mathematics Tutor & Learning Coach

 My career has been dedicated to inspiring mathematical confidence, competence, and joy in children.

I have a particular passion and expertise in understanding each child’s unique learning profile, paired with an unusual intuition for recognizing the approaches that will best foster their growth and pleasure in learning.

With 44 years of experience making math clear and accessible to students from kindergarten through college, I have honed my ability to respond to each child’s learning needs.

From a very young age, I developed an intense love of learning that has stayed with me throughout my life. Every day, I devote time not just to teaching but also to learning. My lifelong interests include how children learn, child psychology, mathematics, brain plasticity, and meditation. The concept of brain plasticity, even before it was widely recognized, has always fascinated me as I seek to understand and enhance the brain processes that drive learning. I begin every morning with tea, meditation, learning, and writing. In my work with children, I aim to share this intense pleasure in learning, exploring, and discovering.

I have privately tutored students since I started college at age 15 in 1975 to study math, physics, and poetry. 

I have trained mathematicians, scientists, engineers, philosophers, and public school teachers to teach math to children using highly effective methods.

Over a period of 12 years, I homeschooled my three sons — an indescribable joy. My children — Thomas, James, and William — taught me even more than I taught them and continue to do so.

I have taught algebra at the following places:

UC Berkeley (MESA program — Math, Engineering, Science Achievement for children, College of Engineering)

11 Berkeley public schools: Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Ruth Acty, Oxford, Cragmont, John Muir, Emerson, Franklin (now closed), King, Longfellow, and Willard

9 Oakland public schools: Thornhill, Montclair, Maxwell Park, Peralta, Hillcrest, Chabot, Joaquin Miller, Kaiser, Horace Mann

Edgewood Children’s Center in San Francisco (a residential psychiatric center for children) 

Cariboo College (now Thompson Rivers University) in British Columbia