Welcome to the school that teaches you how to be a grown up
Their motto: ‘come here instead of calling your parents’.
Can't figure out how to fold a sheet, save for retirement, change a tyre, or wash out a red wine stain? Well, there's now a place that can help.
Welcome to the Adulting School, which holds a series of in-person workshops dedicated to “teaching skills for personal and financial success.” It's hoping to fill-in the life-skills gap for recent university graduates, says co-director Rachel Weinstein. Online courses will begin next month. The school, based in Portland, Maine in the US, opened in July 2016. Its motto: “Come here instead of calling your parents."
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Weinstein, a psychotherapist turned workshop facilitator, partnered with Katie Brunelle, a former teacher, and Rachel Flehinger, an improvisational comedian, to launch the programme. The trio aim to gather the kind of knowledge that many young people don’t realise they need to know until they are on their own (and, even some uncertain thirtysomethings attend the workshops), Weinstein says.
Topics run the gamut. Simple life hacks such managing to save on a starting salary to figuring out how to better track your time are lessons that need to be learned by those who are new to so-called “adulting”. But the courses also cover more complex topics such as dealing with a family member’s death and navigating tricky relationships. About 200 people have attended Adulting School programmes so far. Happy hour workshops are currently free, while some events cost $30 per student.
In the video above, BBC Capital takes you inside Adulting School.
Text by Alina Dizik/Video by Maria Rosa Badia