Most students are 18 when they graduate from high school—technically adults. But how well-prepared are they to handle the life skills adulthood requires, or even to choose a viable path forward?
Not very, according to a Gallup-led national survey of high school students and their parents and guardians released earlier this month. A majority of the 1,300-plus 16- to 18-year-old high school students surveyed said that they don’t feel prepared to pursue the educational or career path they’re most interested in; 47% of parents surveyed reported that they are not frequently discussing post-graduation plans with their child.
Without consistent parental guidance on big decisions like what comes after high school, many teens may also be missing out on learning key life skills at home—from seemingly minor tasks like addressing an envelope or changing a flat tire, to complex subjects like banking, job searches, insurance, and taxes. Nor do most high schools cover these subjects. One longtime educator has set out to change that in her Michigan district.
The idea hit Betsy Springer, a teacher and instructional coach at Gull Lake Partnership—a public, virtual school in Richland, Mich.—about a decade ago as she came across a Facebook post that highlighted the “10 things I wished I learned in school.” That proved to be an “aha” moment for Springer that led her to develop Adulting 101 and, later, Adulting 102 as electives for her district’s high school students.
Education Week recently interviewed Springer about her adulting classes. She shared what content she covers, where she gets her information, what resonates most with students, and more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you recall some of the 10 things highlighted in that Facebook post representing what students don’t learn in school?
It included doing taxes, balancing a checkbook, preparing for a job interview, repairing things around the house.
What did you do with that information?
I printed out the Facebook post and took it to our director [position equivalent to a principal], and I said: We do a lot of course design. I think next year we should teach a class that covers these and other things that, apparently, people aren’t learning in high school. The administration approved it, and I went with it. We started Adulting 101 in 2018 as a half-credit, general elective.
What topics do Adulting 101 and 102 cover?
The two classes each cover a set of different topics related to independent living and can be taken without prerequisites in any order.
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 the bulk of content for these classes come from?
Our district places a huge emphasis on connecting students with community leaders, so my original vision was to bring in local experts from various fields to share their expertise with students. For example, my father is an automotive engineer. I had him 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.
Other sources you draw from?
I use a lot of online resources. I’ve introduced students to an online financial calculator, for example. I use a lot of YouTube videos. But I continue to rely on expertise from local industry experts, too.
How do you structure the class?
Students are expected to be able to master 20 activities related to independent living, like preparing for a job interview or understanding the differences between renting and buying a home. I use a lot of formative assessments, including quizzes and projects, to test their knowledge.
What kind of feedback do students give you on the courses?
I’ve heard a variety of things. I’ve had some students come back to me after I’ve helped them practice for a job interview and say it helped them to feel less nervous during the actual interview. After doing a lesson on how to do a home safety audit, I had a lot of students tell me their smoke detector batteries were dead.
Have students shared their favorite ‘adulting’ topics?
Yes, I have asked them to share that. The two most popular topics, for whatever reason, were “how to tie a tie” and “how to plunge a toilet.”
If not in your class, where and when would students learn about these life skills and options?
Some of things used to be covered in home economics classes, which have gone away, or a personal finance class, which we don’t offer.
What about parents?
Some of the feedback I’ve gotten from parents is that it’s great for teenagers to hear some of these lessons from someone else other than Mom and Dad. So it’s maybe not that parents aren’t covering these things, like the importance of budgeting, but it helps for this information to be reinforced by an adult other than a parent.
How popular are these courses?
We started Adulting 101 with about six students. Now, each class (Adulting 101 and 102) has between 25 and 30 students, with room to grow. Our school provides all the virtual classes for our whole district. So if somebody at our district’s in-person high school wants an online class, they will take it through our virtual school. My class is about 50/50: students that are all-online combined with those who attend our brick-and-mortar high school. It’s not unusual for students in our district to have blended schedules, and Adulting is probably the most popular one.
How relevant are these ‘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. So for those students, I think it’s really important for them to have the financial literacy piece of it.
Has the ‘adulting’ material you teach changed over the years?
One thing I’ve rethought is the assumption that every student’s going to college in the traditional manner, like I did. 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. Even if they’re not in the early college program, they might, through dual enrollment, have a lot of college credits. There are also a lot of students who are going to delay going to college or may choose to pursue a trade. So over the years, I’ve learned that post-high school pathways is a much broader and more personalized topic than just the standard answer.
How optimistic are you that high school students today, in general, are ready to become adults?
I’m optimistic. I think they have all the capabilities. I think what they need most is adults around them who say to them: You can do it, you can figure it out.
