Maybe adulthood is not a Big Deal

From the LA Times of Dec. 10: Conner Wright is carrying a demanding course load in his final year as an English major at UC Berkeley: antebellum American literature, introduction to music therapy and a research seminar on William Shakespeare. The 20-year-old senior is immersed in the works of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville and Harriet Jacobs. But Wright, who is anticipating his graduation in May, has the self-awareness to know he needed a little something extra to prepare for his launch into a post-college world, that a superior ability to interpret classic literary works may not be enough.

So he signed up for a class on “adulting,” where he is learning to create and stick to a personal budget, build a resume and apply for jobs and navigate romantic relationships in a time when online interactions are eclipsing face-to-face encounters. “I need to learn how to get this adult thing down and manage life,” Wright said.

The class, which has 30 students enrolled in each section, is led by two Berkeley undergrads who plan discussion topics and schedule guest speakers to fill 90 minutes each week. The “adults in training” are among thousands of people across the country who have signed up for courses that focus on things such as cooking or budgeting or time management. Adulting classes for college students and postgrads have swelled in popularity in recent years, in part because many high schools have largely abandoned “life skills” courses such as home economics, which were created to help students navigate the path to adulthood...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-10/adulting-is-hard-uc-berkeley-has-a-class-for-that

Note: Before drawing big intergenerational conclusions from the above story, consider this statement later in the article: "The courses... count for one or two credits and are offered as pass/no pass; as a result, students say they are unlikely to add to their stress levels."

Moreover, the story actually first appeared elsewhere over the past summer: https://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Adulting-DeCal-class-list-UC-Berkeley-Cal-14368771.php. With impeachment and all, you wouldn't think December 10th was a slow news day in which old stories needed to be rehashed to fill space. But maybe it was.

In short, maybe it's not a Big Deal.