Turns out, “I was today years old when I learned how to roast a chicken” isn’t just a TikTok trend. This is a reality among Gen Z, and they are over it. Zoomers are now signing up for Adulting 101 classes. These crash courses in real-life responsibility teach everything from budgeting and filing taxes to laundry that doesn’t make all your clothes pink because you mixed a red sock with all your whites.
Adulting is officially in session.
“Why Didn’t They Teach Us This in School?” — Every Gen Z Ever
In an interview with CBC’s The Current (via the New York Post), Aldhen Garcia, a freshman student at Canada’s Toronto Metropolitan University, admitted the things he doesn’t know how to do. These are some of the skills that other generations have learned even before they went to university.
Garcia said, “I don’t know how to change a tire. I don’t have a car at all. I don’t know how to sew. I don’t know how to do a lot of things, other than cooking.” He added, “I think it’s so important that children are taught financial literacy. A lot of stuff involves money.”
Since it’s become a necessity, colleges like the University of Waterloo are now offering adulting classes to teach life skills. Bella Hudson, a third-year student, shared, “There’s a lot of things that are missed in education about when you actually become an adult. I do wish that they had classes that taught how to manage yourself and manage your life.”
Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University noted that the lack of knowledge about life skills might be because “kids are growing up less independent.” They are also “less likely to learn how to do adult things as high school students. Then they get to university, and they still don’t know.”
Twenge also said helicopter parents aren’t really doing their kids any favors. She said that this parenting style only raises kids who are “financially dependent” on their “parents for longer.”
Crash Course on Adulting 101
Director of Student Success at the University of Waterloo, Pam Charbonneau, said overwhelmed students often come to them for help. “You see their shoulders drop when they realize there’s actually someone and something here to help me solve my problem,” according to Vice.
Udemy also offers an online Adulting course including topics about Goal Setting, Time Management, Personal Finance, Jobs, Fitness and Nutrition, Relationships, and Mental Health. Additional resources are also available for High School Students, College Students, and for Adults (Life After College).
