Back to basics: universities now offer ‘adulting’ classes

Los Angeles Times 11 January 2020

Conner Wright is carrying a demanding course load in his final year as an English major at the University of California, Berkeley. He’s studying Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Jacobs – and how to do laundry without turning his underwear pink, one of the basic life coping skills taught in a class on ‘adulting’, writes Hannah Fry for the Los Angeles Times.

He’s one of thousands of ‘adults in training’ across the country. Adulting classes for college students and postgrads have swelled in popularity in recent years, in part because many high schools have abandoned ‘life skills’ courses such as home economics, which were created to help students navigate the path to adulthood.

Why didn’t their parents teach them these skills? Because, according to many of the students, their parents emphasised academic achievement to the exclusion of almost everything else. As a result, universities are filled with students who aced their AP physics test but have no idea how to cook pasta without turning it into mush.
Full report on the Star Tribune site

Receive email updates from UWN

Global newsletters    Africa newsletters    Other
    (other includes related events and webinars)

Data will be processed according to our standard terms & conditions.

Research focuses on production of jet fuel from halophytes

UAE University staff

With an eye to developing a clean, alternative aviation fuel to reduce carbon emissions, researchers at the United Arab Emirates University have been focusing on the production of jet fuel from sustainable resources such as halophytes, which are salt-tolerant plants that could be cultivated on a wider scale in the region’s coastal areas.

The value of being human: How teachers can work alongside AI

Michael Milligan

Artificial intelligence is now a part of our evolution in technology and teachers need to be encouraged to find ways to bring AI into the classroom and have students use it in a way that is beneficial to them in the long term.

Ground-breaking research on seawater biodesalination

UAE University staff

As water scarcity reaches critical levels globally, a research team at the United Arab Emirates University seeks to revolutionise seawater desalination practices, offering a path to mitigate water scarcity while championing environmental preservation.