GROW UP: Prof finds students delay adulthoodJon Street
on Jan 06, 2019 at 3:06 PM EDT
* A Georgia Tech professor says she discovered through a course on "adulting" that students define "adulthood" differently than previous generations.
* The professor found out from students that they would only consider themselves to become "adults" after having children of their own.
When does one become an "adult"?
Legally speaking, one is an "adult" when they turn 18. That would mean since college students are between the ages of 18-22, virtually every college student is, in turn, an "adult." But some college students aren't so sure of this.
"It wasn't graduated from college, it wasn't getting your first job.. you're paying your own rent, you have your health insurance. That's what I think being an adult is."
Rebekah Fitzsimmons, a Georgia Tech University English professor who taught a course in fall 2016 titled, "Adulting: Coming of Age in 21st Century America," told Business Insider recently that during the course she asked students to say at what stage in life one becomes an "adult."
Their responses were shocking.
"The vast majority of them said that they thought it was when you had kids of your own," Fitzsimmons said. "It wasn't graduated from college, it wasn't getting your first job. I joked with him that my definition was, you're paying your own rent, you have your health insurance. That's what I think being an adult is."
"But they said, you know, once you have kids, that's it — you're definitely an adult," Fitzsimmons added. ...
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