Thoughts on Drivers Educations

Teenage Hotrodders #19
August 1966

From time to time I am asked to teach classes in Drivers' Education in one of the largest secondary schools in our city. I am a firm believer that the art and science of handling a car in all the situations that can be met belongs properly to the field of experts. I live not too far from an area where a lot of drivers are behind a wheel with a friend or relative showing them what to do. All this in preparation for the state examination so that they can obtain a driver's license.

Let me put my thoughts this way: Today we scientifically know what a car can do-as well as what it can't do-under a variety of conditions; we know the psychological as well as the physical reactions of the human person behind the wheel; and road engineers have made studies of driving under different road conditions. Thus we do have a vast body of skills and knowledge from different experts in the field. I submit that the day when Father taught Junior how to drive a car or when a husband teaches his wife how to drive a car is definitely limited. By this I mean that no matter how willing Father or the husband may be-they don't have all the skills at their command-nor the knowledge-nor even the scientific equipment needed.

You can put a class in Drivers' Education in a room all set up with the steering wheel, dash board, brakes and shifting lever. You can show a person what to do-and that person watching a motion picture projected on a screen-can "drive" his car in and out of traffic before he gets behind the wheel of an actual car. He can study his mistakes and errors. And he can see the problems involved concerning other drivers that he has to "meet" in a day's driving. And when he does go driving he sits in a special car that is equipped with dual sets of controls. That split second in an emergency-when the instructor may have to take over-is saved in this type of car. In the ordinary family car it can mean a tragic accident.

Recently I asked a father who had given his son some driving lessons the following question: "Have you discussed with your son the many problems he will meet as a driver?"

"There are so many of them," admitted the father. "It just would be impossible. He'll learn how to handle them-the same way. I did-when he drives by himself."

"But will he?" I challenged. "A line of automobiles are moving slowly across a railroad grade crossing. Does he know what to do to avoid being caught in a trap? And if he were caught in a trap-would he know how to get out of it alive? Now what did you tell him about skidding? Did you take him to an area where he could actually skid in safety and show him the proper way to handle this dangerous situation with a minimum of risk? Or did you give him some lessons driving at night? So that he may know the dangerous situations involved in night driving? Now just where did you teach him to drive? In a crowded city street? On a modern superhighway? On an old country road? On a one-way street? Along a two-lane highway?

"Wait a minute!" protested the father. "I'm a busy man. I did the best I could under the circumstances. Really, for the past year he has been bothering me for permission to use the car. So my wife said I should give him some lessons and let him have the car twice a week. What more do you expect?"

"In your factory you have some expensive machinery," I snapped back. "You won't hire a man unless he is thoroughly trained to use the machine. Your car is fairly expensive. True, it can be replaced. But not your son. Nor the life of some other person that may be lost as the result of an accident. There are reputable agencies that do teach Drivers' Education. And the course is also being given in many secondary schools. I think it best that all drivers take such a course. With a relative or friend next to you-you do have an emotional problem present in any criticism that may be given. But not with the professional and trained instructor."

I am not going to say that the father agreed with me one hundred per cent. But this is my personal view and there are many experts in the field who agree with me. Yet unfortunately, it is the bit of teaching that the father or husband may have forgotten which can scare the life out of any driver. Especially when he goes down a long hill for the first time!