Times have changed, and while most parents will always do their best to bring their kids up properly, not many kids these days are being taught how to handle themselves in the real world, ‘adulting’ as some call it. Kids formerly learned basic life skills such as cooking cleaning, ironing, plumbing, car maintenance, and even resuscitation skills at home. Nowadays, there’s “so much” going on in the life of kids and teens that there’s barely any time to learn these important skills. So many kids move on to college without knowing how to do simple stuff for themselves, and that’s never a good way to start life.
A high school in Lumpkin County, Georgia, assessed the effect of the education gap and came up with an incredible solution – albeit the best we’ve seen in a long time.
At Lumpkin County High School, “ADULTING DAY” is an entire day set out to teach seniors on their way to college how to handle basic real-life tasks and learn to be self-sufficient [1]. All 273 seniors are mandated to learn everything from ironing and plumbing basics to resuscitation and car maintenance skills.
Several seniors at the school now know where to look under the hood of a car to check the oil.
Speaking to WSB-TV Atlanta, senior Grace Wikle, a particularly bright student is especially proud that she can change a mean tire now [2].
“I take AP World, AP environmental science, AP language and then apart from that, five courses at the college,” Wikle said. When asked what she would have done if she had a flat tire prior to her training, she said: “(I’d) call somebody else, call my parents, whoever is on the side of the road. I was not prepared before today.”
Ready for adulting

While there are resources such as YouTube to learn DIY home skills, students admitted to Channel 2’s Brandt Petersen that they learned and focused better when being taught in real life.