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‘Adulting Day’: Students learn the basics before they really need them

LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga. — Ironing, cooking and even cleaning a toilet are all chores we file under "adulting."

But so many kids go to college without knowing how to do them.

That's why one school is teaching students how to deal with everyday life.

Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen was at Lumpkin County High School Friday, where they had an “Adulting Day.”

It's the kind of stuff that years ago, almost everybody knew how to do.

But when you look under the hood of a new truck, do you know how to check the oil?

Lumpkin County High School senior Grace Wikle is as bright as they come.

"I take AP World, AP environmental science, AP language and then apart from that, five courses at the college,” Wikle said.

But if faced with a flat tire, she says it would be a problem… and she’s not alone.

"I have two boys who go to this school. (They are) 18 and 17. I'm embarrassed to say if my kids got stuck in the rain today with a flat tire, they probably wouldn't know how to fix it," principal Billy Kirk said.

Kirk aims to change that. He invited experts to school Friday including plumbers, electricians, mechanics and cooks.

They taught all 273 seniors everything from how to save a life to how to press a pair of pants.

"We're trying to teach kids real-life examples. So when they graduate, not only are they college ready, but they're life ready," Kirk said.

Wikle said that had she gotten a flat on the way to school before learning in the makeshift auto shop, she would have had limited choices when it came to how to handle it.

“(I’d) call somebody else, call my parents, whoever is on the side of the road. I was not prepared before today," she said.

Students told Petersen that while they can use resources like YouTube to watch a video on how to do something a hands-on “Adulting Day” was much more effective.