Should there be a class on being an adult?

[Twalli]

Anyone who has graduated can tell you, being an adult is unlike school. You don't have summers off, you have to get your own food, you have to pay for someone to clean if you don't, you have to pay taxes, on and on. There's a lot that school doesn't prepare you for once you graduate. Should schools give a class on being an adult, so you have the skills you need to be an adult beyond career qualifications?

[BeeNee]

The first week at my university was a rude awakening for a lot of students. My parents spent a lot of time when I was in high school talking me through and having me practice a lot of things related to "how to adult," which made my transition fairly smooth into adulthood and living in a dorm. I assumed everyone was getting the same sort of education, but there were plenty of kids as I quickly found out, in the laundry room putting the reds with the whites whom I had to educate. Plenty of kids that had never pumped gas, didn't know a thing about banking, they didn't know how to book a doctors appointment, and if there wasn't a required meal plan (which I was told was required because students were literally starving at one point), I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be pretty. We all come from different circumstances and different backgrounds. Maybe you didn't have parents in the home, or they were awful and didn't care, or were just lazy and assumed you'd just magically figure it all out like they had to or whatever. A class would be brilliant for those in that boat who want to learn (which I think everyone could benefit from).

[Screenwriter]

I think some high schools have Life Skills classes given to juniors and seniors. Bank accounts, credit unions, accountants, IRS, conflict resolution, therapy, managing credit... cooking, car and home maintenance, creating a budget, buying a home, a car.

If you never learned those basics by watching your parents, or having them show you, having such in-person classes that feature visiting experts and concerned teachers is the next best thing.

Would be nice if freshmen in college would be required to take a semester of Life Skills in order to graduate. And would be great if they could take an advanced classes that include parenting skills, school and daycare evaluation, more advanced car and home maintenance...

The 101 would be the requirement and elective Life Skills classes would possibly earn the student a special certificate.

[TalkWithoutSpeaking]

As a middle school teacher with a teaching degree and a undergraduate degree in Intercultural pedagogy, I feel like I'm qualified to answer this question with:

Yes, it's called school. School is supposed to prepare you to become an adult. It's supposed to give you the tools, skills, the awareness of environment and of self that is necessary to function as an adult.

This is also called citizenship education, in some literature. It's all about training, teaching and preparing students to become active, free-thinking, free-acting independent members of society while knowing that they're part of something bigger than themselves.

The three purposes of education, which I'd consider to be three components of adulthood:

- guiding and encouraging students to become their authentic expression: to become and create themselves and identity.

- understand their role, their duties, their rights and their connection with the rest of the world and their social and natural environment.

- get the cognitive and academic skills to be able to be active in society and yes, get a job and survive.

[Purpleronnie]

Hah , love this question but I think if the “class” had been offered or made mandatory I’d have completely ignored the teachings as I did the initial advice given to me by those adults in my life full of wisdom and experience.


I was always thinking I knew better and now when I’m giving advice to niece and nephews etc they look at me the same way I did my would be teachers. Like “ yeah yeah , what do you know , your just old and think you know but you don’t “


If only I could step back in time and tell my younger self I need to listen 😜

[AI Opinion]

Yes, a class on "adulting" would be valuable. Schools equip students with academic knowledge but often overlook practical skills needed for adult life, such as financial literacy, time management, and basic household management. These skills can bridge the gap between education and real-world responsibilities, empowering young adults to navigate life with confidence. A comprehensive curriculum could integrate budgeting, cooking, tax basics, and maintaining work-life balance, ensuring students are more holistically prepared for their future.

[ArrowheadSW]

That is a pretty good idea.

[IHaveRespawned]

Most certainly! Our education system had failed us! While teaching math, history, language arts, sciences, and maybe some career-oriented electives that hardly scratch the surface, K-12 school fails to prepare us for fundamental adult responsibilities and managing life after graduation. Most importantly, schools are lacking to prepare students on two crucial aspect of life: soft skills and critical thinking. What many (including myself) had to learn the hard way is that making social connections becomes very, very challenging after school (or college). Just think, when you are at school, you are surrounded by peers of similar age and life experiences all day, every day. When you leave an organized environment like that, your peers and friends eventually go their own way, get married, and invest their time and energy in career and their own nuclear families. Having to seek out social commonplaces becomes a nightmare. That was probably the most gutwrenching, depressing part about being an adult.

[Crimsyjo]

Absolutely!! I've tried telling and showing my daughters but who listens to "mom"? And to hear them complain constantly about how hard life is? During school days? They've no idea how much harder it gets! A class might make them grateful for what a push over school is mostly.

[Briennette]

All of those things were taught in the past to kids by their own parents by telling their kids to have summer jobs, to pay for the toys they wanted, to learn responsibility for the things they wanted and bought with their own money (that they had to earn themselves), with pets, a car and its maintenance, etc.

Parents in western cultures used to teach kids the importance of contributing to the family. So that even if you had to earn your own money, some could go away to helping with bills.

That was taken away for the most part, culturally. And now, you have adults that don't know how to function outside of school.

In my country, it's different. Parents do still, for the most part, teach those things to kids. For the most part. I personally don't want it to go away.

[exitseven]

Kids should be taught responsibilities at a young age instead of parents wiping their butts all through college. Kids do not deliver newspapers anymore. They do not have summer jobs, if they do anything it is an unpaid internship. They need to get a paycheck and see ho much is deducted for taxes, then need to pay towards their college tuition so they see how expensive it is.

[bingbongbangbung]

Lol newspaper and other traditional errands are dead, meanwhile many employers would rather hire illegals and/or foreigners over local youth

[Twalli]

@bingbongbangbung Because if they're not here legally, they won't take you to court over unfair working conditions.

[exitseven]

That is why they all must go.

[OneViewpoint]

Um that’s what parents are supposed to be doing. Setting the example. Teaching. Imposing consequences.

Sadly not everyone receives equal parenting. And not everyone who does absorbs the knowledge the same way.

I’m OK with that. What could prepare you for life better than failure?

[Chazmatazz269]

That’s what parents are for. Maybe orphanages should have classes on adulting, but it’s not the skool’s job to teach kids the fundamentals of life. If parents can’t do that, then they shouldn’t be having kids.

[Twalli]

And if your parents die when you're in your teens?

[Chazmatazz269]

I would be fine. My parents raised me to be an adult, not a child. I was fully self sufficient by the time i was fifteen. I suspect your problem is that you think it’s parents’ responsibility to raise their children to be overgrown children. If you don’t know what it means to be an adult by the time you’re eighteen, your parents have failed you. Also, you don’t age out of an orphanage until eighteen. So that still applies for kids whose incompetent parents die when the children are in their teens.

[Twalli]

Being an adult and doing everything to be an adult are not the same.

[LiamJHayden]

Well if schools taught about things like credit, how minimum payments are not your friend, and how interest rates work there would likely be far fewer crash outs over how much student loan debt some of these individuals have and the 17% and higher rates many are stuck with.

[Rei13]

Honestly I probably would have ignored the class when I was in school but I still think it should be a class to teach (or at least introduce) teenagers things that they’ll need to know as a functional adult

[yourAverageUserName]

being informed and educated does not mean you will do any better in life most smokers know the bad effects of it but still are unable to quit so taking a class on being an adult will only do the ones that wish to learn good and the rest will make bad choices there entire lives

[Twalli]

At least we have the skills we need.

[LaFemmeFatale_1]

I’d need to sign up for that class, has been a bumpy road.

[Twalli]

There isn't a class like that, but there should be.

[exitseven]

come to my house and i will teach you how to do an oil change and jump a dead battery.

[LaFemmeFatale_1]

@exitseven Coming!

[sportsman_MD]

I think it would be a lot more beneficial than some of the classes we take in high school. Many kids become adults and don’t know what they’re doing, except for those who had very responsible parents.

[Chazmatazz269]

Those would be normal parents. The ones who fail to prepare their kids for life are irresponsible parents.

[sportsman_MD]

Unfortunately the irresponsible ones are the normal now. There are now less responsible parents than irresponsible ones.

[McLlovin]

YES!! Definitely. Especially taxes. I remember a teacher wanted to create a curriculum based on teaching kids about taxes but they rejected her idea

[i_Jedi]

Absolutely yes! Adulting is hard and no one really teaches us how to budget, cook, manage stress, or handle relationships. A class on this would save so many people from unnecessary struggles.

[jshm2]

LOL, you think a class is all it would take?

[Twalli]

No, you need some real-world experience, but it would at least give you a bit of preparation.

[AviatorTom]

Nah, it's more fun learning how to be an adult OJT, as you grow older. 🙊🙉🙈

[DrPepper12]

Would you, as your teenage self, have the potential to internalize what's being taught?

[MannMitAntworten]

Didn’t need school for this. I had parents who reminded the expense of life regularly.

[dragoblack]

Well yeah, school are set up for graduation-into-factory work, while pushing propaganda history. Self-sufficiency was never the plan.

[whiskeyontherocks]

Sounds like a waste of time. If you can’t figure it out on your own a class is not going to help.

[razor97]

They already exist in Europe and Philippines but in the form of internships.

[stayorgo]

Hell yeah , but the question is when you're young you're not going to listen

[ChooChooHaha]

Yes. Punctuality, etc. Needs to be taught.

[BonzoInBitburg]

That's a parents job.

[BarryLiverstone]

And what would they call it.. home economics?

[Twalli]

Adulting

[BarryLiverstone]

Or home economics

[BarryLiverstone]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_economics

[BarryLiverstone]

This was a class taught in high school for years by the way

[Twalli]

Except it isn't taught anymore, and still doesn't cover EVERYTHING necessary.

[BarryLiverstone]

Yep, but it covered most of it. Still gotta wonder why isn’t it taught?

[Twalli]

Lack of interest and funds, most likely. That's why Stanford University cut its wrestling program.

[jamesgoldman]

No, if you can't work it out then you've failed

[captain_voidwalker]

It already exists it's called economics

[Twalli]

Took econ, didn't learn how to be an adult

[captain_voidwalker]

As Stephen he would say. "You are failure"

[Allmenrsick]

Yes how to be a pervert and escort

[lightbulb27]

yes!

[Kingofkings1992]

Not a bad idea.

[Pookywookybear]

Yes with gardening classes too

[Simslover92]

Definitely.

[dustybiker2]

Yes.

[Meatballs]

Absolutely

[beefcakebradybatson]

Of course.

[msc545]

Good idea!

[Chocolatetwopointthr]

yeah