Program teaches millennials how to grow up

Psychobabble Bullshit

Using psychobabble to teach Man-Children to be adults

PORTLAND, Maine  (BND Maine) — Thirty-five people gathered at a popular Portland bistro on a recent weeknight to learn how to talk.

Cards were passed and conversations sparked, but this group of branders, photographers, auditors and teachers weren’t merely networking. They were “adulting.”

“Small talk is hard for me,” said Julie Moulton, a thirtysomething marketing coordinator who was attending the happy hour networking class at Sur Lie on Free Street.

The event was organized by The Adulting School, a new program devoted to helping people learn skills they might not have picked up in college or from their parents. The founders take their inspiration from a similar program, The Society of Grownups, in Brookline, Massachusetts.

You've Gotta Love Millennials

Adulting is a newly verbed noun that Time magazine described as a way for millennials to “acknowledge and/or make fun of and/or come to grips with that transition [to adulthood] (or how late they are to it).”

“Our mission is to teach people to feel empowered,” said Rachel Weinstein, a psychotherapist who launched the effort with friend Katie Brunelle to “fill the gaps” that people may have missed along the road to adulthood.

“We are targeting millennials who grew up in the recession,” she said.

That generation is known for delaying typically adult trappings such as marriage, home ownership and steady careers in much greater numbers than their parents. And with classes in home economics pushed aside nationally for a narrower focus on academics, there seems to be room for programs such as The Adulting School to thrive.

Can you teach someone the tips and tricks of maturity? The program’s founders say yes, they can.

The startup’s mission statement to instill “life-knowledge we wish we’d learned in high school or college. We’re talking budgeting, investing, meal planning, getting out of debt … even how to change a tire, meditate or start a fire,” is done in informal happy hours. Classes are held at places where people including 27-year-old entrepreneur Laura Sprinkle feel comfortable learning, seeing and being seen.

“There is adult education, but that sounds lame,” Sprinkle said, sipping a glass of wine after listening to a 40-minute talk on the ins and outs of networking. “This is hip. I am going to cool bars I would go to anyway.”

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