Concerned that they’re not prepared for the real world, Gen Z is turning to “adulting” classes for a crash course in basic life skills – learning everything from budgeting to changing tires and doing laundry.
A recent article from The New York Post spelled out the phenomenon that has seen some teens and twenty-somethings desperate to instill their brains with some “common sense” knowledge familiar to the generations before them.
One institution with such an offering is Canada’s University of Waterloo, whose “Adulting 101” course is designed to help students care for themselves and the space around them as they transition into college life.
A webpage detailing the course highlights three skills it reinforces – “prioritize your mental and physical self,” “learn new responsibilities” – including healthy eating and household maintenance – and “explore personal growth,” which puts emphasis on campus resources for success.
GEN Z BRANDED AS ‘THE GHOSTED GENERATION’ AS DATES, COLLEGES AND EMPLOYERS KEEP SAYING ‘NO’
According to Newsweek, U.S. schools and organizations like Michigan State University, the University of California, Riverside and JCI [Junior Chamber International] Santa Clarita, have introduced “adulting” classes to help the age group come up to pace.
For those like Aldhen Garcia, a freshman at Canada’s Toronto Metropolitan University, the opportunity to take such a class could be helpful.
She admitted to CBC’s “The Current” that she doesn’t know how to change a tire, sew, or perform many other basic skills aside from cooking, according to the Post, and data shows she’s far from alone.
GEN Z OUTPACES OLDER GENERATIONS WITH EARLIER JUMP INTO INVESTING: REPORT
A study by dating app FindingTheOne, which surveyed more than 1,500 participants from different age groups on their cooking proficiency, found that 42% of those aged 18 to 28 couldn’t make a basic stir-fry, while 27% struggled with a basic soup.
Gulf Oil found that zoomers were the “least knowledgeable” when it came to vehicle maintenance, with only 61.64% knowing how to check engine oil and only 57.69% knowing the warning signs of brakes that need to be changed.
Elias Coop-Gonzalez, a Gen Zer and member of the West Virginia House of Delegates serving on the education committee, told Fox News Digital one of the main reasons zoomers are generally less independent than the generations before them is because of the current education system.
“We should approach education with Gen Z to be a little more holistic and to apply more skills in addition to the ones that are strictly academic, so you have basic car maintenance, you know how to check the oil, how to change a tire. A lot of people don’t know how to do that and that’s something people should definitely know,” he said.
“Doing taxes, all of that [is important], because I think a lot of people in our generation are going into the real world and not really able to get a good swing, because they don’t have a lot of these really basic skills, things that anybody can learn, but they still need to be learned.”
MILLENNIALS AND ZOOMERS AREN’T LEAVING THE NEST ANYTIME SOON. THIS REALTOR SAYS THAT’S A SMART DECISION
He said such life skills courses should be introduced earlier rather than later, and believes there’s a “strong case” for reinforcing such concepts throughout the student’s tenure in public school.
Gen Z conservative influencer Christian Hodges “totally agrees” that his generation is less independent than their predecessors.
He told Fox News Digital that the up-and-coming age group’s lack of real-world preparedness is a byproduct of a broken system.
“A higher percentage of Gen Zers have gone to college than any other generation in the past. Universities used to be a place where you could send your child off to become independent. Now colleges have taught young people to be dependent on the government, to be dependent on the university itself and also dependent on their parents to make ends meet. [College is] not a place to get to learn basic life skills,” he said Wednesday.
To that point, he said Gen Zers’ access to more convenient tools than the generations before them has largely eliminated the need to become self-sufficient. Food delivery services like Uber Eats and DoorDash, for one, have given these young adults access to a quick and easy meal at their fingertips. On-campus dining halls, where Gen Zers can get their meals with similar ease, are another factor.
“Why would you learn how to cook when you have a dining hall on campus or at every corner on campus? You have an extra food option when, at the tip of your finger, you can order using DoorDash. Why would you learn these basic skills when the convenience is far easier than the hard work to learn the skills?” he added.
Hodges also said it’s a “sad truth” that many in his generation would benefit from “Adulting 101” courses, blaming high school and college curriculum for becoming politicized.
“[It has] prioritized teaching my generation to become left-wing activists instead of normal functioning adults,” he continued.
Read the full article here
