Students are not well prepared to handle adult life skills, or choose a feasible path forward, according to a Gallup-led national survey of high school students and their parents and guardians reported on by Education Week. Most of the 1,300-plus 16- to 18-year-old high school students surveyed don’t feel prepared to pursue the educational or career path they’re most interested in. Almost half (47%) of parents do not frequently discuss post-graduation plans with their child.
Betsy Springer, a teacher and instructional coach at Gull Lake Partnership—a public, virtual school in Richland, Mich. developed Adulting 101 and, later, Adulting 102 as electives for her district’s high school students.
Education Week interviewed Springer about her adulting classes. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What don’t students learn in school?
(The list from a Facebook post) included doing taxes, balancing a checkbook, preparing for a job interview, repairing things around the house.
What topics do Adulting 101 and 102 cover?
The course outline for Adulting 101 includes going to college and other pathways; getting a job; banking; budgeting; doing taxes; housing; home maintenance and safety; health, nutrition, and cooking; insurance; voting and community involvement; digital citizenship; and personal relationships and conflict.
Adulting 102 covers travel, doing laundry, personal and mental health, tech or digital health, personal budgeting, time management, and goal setting.
Where does most of the course content come from?
My original vision was to bring in local experts from various fields to share their expertise with students. I had my father, an automotive engineer, talk to students about basic car maintenance. A school employee who also worked at a bank has covered banking basics with students. One of our students’ mothers is a realtor, so I had her come in and talk to students about buying a house versus renting a house.
What other sources?
I use a lot of online resources. I’ve introduced students to an online financial calculator. I use a lot of YouTube videos. And I continue to rely on expertise from local industry experts, too.
How are the courses structured?
Students are expected to master 20 activities related to independent living, like preparing for a job interview or understanding the differences between renting and buying a home. A lot of formative assessments are used, including quizzes and projects, to test knowledge.
What is the feedback from students?
I’ve had some students say after practicing for a job interview it helped them to feel less nervous during the actual interview. A lot of students have told me their smoke detector batteries were dead after doing a lesson on how to do a home safety audit.
How relevant are “adulting” lessons to teenagers?
Most of my students are 11th and 12th graders. We have a large early college and dual enrollment program. Our early college students are nearly full-time college students in 11th, 12th, and 13th grades. Many will graduate with their associate’s or a specialized certification, and they’re going out and making money immediately afterwards. For these students it’s really important for them to have the financial literacy piece of it.
How has “adulting” material changed over the years?
I’ve rethought the assumption that every student’s going to college in the traditional manner. A lot of our students that are going to be college-bound start college before they’re out of high school, so they might be entering college as a sophomore or a junior. Or through dual enrollment they may have a lot of college credits. Many students are going to delay going to college or may choose to pursue a trade. I’ve learned that post-high school pathways are a much broader and more personalized topic than just the standard answer.
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