(CNSNews.com) – Today’s young adults need help navigating the grown-up world, according to Rachel Weinstein and Katie Brunelle, founders of “The Adulting School”, which holds live and online events teaching millennials the basic skills they need for a successful adulthood.
“The Adulting School hosts events for adults to gather, enjoy food and beer, and fill-in the gaps in life-knowledge we wish we’d learned in high school or college,” according to the school’s Facebook page.
“Join this growing community of adults. We give you the space to learn from our carefully selected experts and ask the questions you want to know… without having to call your parents,” its website states.
On December 3rd, the school will hold an “Improv For Resolution & Family Communication” event to teach young adults how to navigate family holiday gatherings.
“Improv for conflict can help you find common ground, improve your listening skills and make it easier to be and feel heard,” the website noted.
Weinstein, a psychotherapist, and Brunelle, a former public school teacher, are both from Portland, Maine. They launched the school in February to teach young adults about adult topics such as finances, health and wellness, relationships, communication, and mastering“make-it and fix-it” skills.
Programs are led by experts in their respective fields who give motivational speeches and demonstrations during the events.
“We’re talking budgeting, investing, meal planning, getting out of debt… even how to change a tire, meditate, or start a fire. Come to an event and learn the stuff you’ve always wanted to know!” the Facebook page explains.
CNSNews.com asked Weinstein why she thinks today’s young adults have missed out on learning such basic life skills as setting up a budget or cooking a meal.
“Due to budget cuts and restructuring, schools have had to change curriculum and have had to cut courses like Family and Consumer Science (aka Home Ec) and basic finance courses,” she said.
“Families are busy in this fast-paced society and there is less time to focus on household chores, where kids would be learning those life skills,” she added.
Weinstein also told CNSNews that young adults are often pressured into attending college, where they acquire a degree but eventually find themselves buried under a mountain of debt. They are “legally being considered an adult, while not knowing where to begin in the adult world,” she explained.
She added that even young adults with a college degree lack the self-confidence to enter the workforce because they don’t know how to create a professional resume or don’t have any interviewing skills.
“Many lack skills creating a resume, interviewing, and professional correspondence, but they also face the frustration of entry-level job options, even with a college degree, [and] aren’t often able to support the cost of living,” Weinstein told CNSNews.
“Folks are not alone in the struggles with adulting,” she said, noting that the Adulting School teaches students “tangible skills they can learn and that with small steps moving forward they can actually be successful.
“Being an adult is empowering and successful adults create a successful community that we all live in,” Weinstein continued. “Our school provides the resources and content they need, but also delivers it in a way that is fun to connect with both live and [in the] virtual community.”
“Adulting, that’s something my friends sort of joke about, there’s a definite need right after college for some of these skills,” 24-year-old Ethan Palm told New York Magazine’s The Cut at an Adulting School event on the importance of having a source of side income. “A lot of people feel lost.”
But attendee Erin Vogel said she came to the event because “my mom sent me the link.”