Not sure about anyone else, so I’m asking, does anyone else see a correlation between the time since Driver’s Education was cut from school curricula, and the kind of driving you see on roads today?

Back in high school, those of us at JHS received a half-credit toward our required point total for graduation, but we really received something way more important to us in those times. We learned to drive cautiously, safely, responsibly, and understand the consequences and possible outcomes if we didn’t practice what our instructors taught.

Most of us had one or both of our parents who took us out after dinner, or on weekends to places where we could practice driving and receive their instruction on driving, and a few warnings regarding driving too fast, or not putting gas back in the car after used the hour or so our parents allotted for us to use the car if it was available. (Many of our parents would allow us short term usage of the car, which in many families, was usually the only car in the family, so we got together with our friends and tried to schedule when we asked for the car so we would not have the same hour, but we’d ask for the use of the car in hour-after hour segments so we’d be able to cruise around for long stretches instead of just an hour or so.

My parents, mostly Dad, would start us out practicing in the Dahlstrom Parking Lot on Buffalo St., on Sundays, as the lot was empty them, so it was a setting where mistakes would be minimal and if there were mistakes there wasn’t much around to hit, be they pedestrians or other cars. I usually took my kids to the Washington School Parking Lot in the after-hours or summertime hours of when school was not in session and did the same thing as Dad did with us. The instruction they gave us was based on their experience of driving as long as they did, and we loved going out to get some practice with them. I think things like this were also known as Quality Time.

When we got our Learners’ Permits and our high school was able to schedule us, usually in our Senior Year, we enrolled in the school’s Drivers’ Ed. Class where we received classroom instruction a few days a week, learning good and safe driving habits, learning the DMV’s rules and regulations, complete with legal consequences, and possible risks and dangers that were connected with operating a motor vehicle. One day we met in the Driver Simulator Room where we sat in a model of a vehicle, learning the practices of what to do when getting behind the wheel of a vehicle (seatbelts, mirror adjustments, starting the car, etc.) and when all that was recorded by our D. E. Teacher, a movie was shown simulating a city street or highway and we operated our simulator in those situations, with the Simulator Computer recording our experience, which was reviewed with us by our teacher, with commentary on the goods and bads of our driving experience. (I once hit a woman carrying groceries across a street on the simulator. Fortunately, she survived.) The last day of our weekly driver’s education course was with one or two other classmates, and our driver’s education teacher in the school’s vehicles and applying what we learned in the Classroom and Simulator Room on the road with practical learning in real situations.

Part of that practical learning I was able to use with way more than just learning to drive. There was a saying years later when I began teaching, coaching, and parenting, that said, “Practice doesn’t make Perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect.” Another one was, “Repetition breeds Habit.” Those two adages seem to be perfect, in learning to drive a car. Though my teacher didn’t say it in those words, he taught those ideas to us in practical and real ways.

Other things I learned from my driver’s education teachers was who has the right of way when cars are parked on one side of the street, and there isn’t always room for three cars abreast on some city streets. (B.T,W. the answer is the person with no cars parked on his/her side of the street.) I learned that S-T-O-P spells STOP, and not creep, slow down, or crawl through the big, red, octagonal shaped sign located on many street corners around the city. I learned that if you are parked on a street and your driver’s side door is on the same side as traffic, you don’t open your door until all cars have passed, instead of opening it up possibly into the lane of traffic.

I learned that multiple lane roads in the city or on highways are not practice paths for anyone’s favorite race car video games, where people zig-zag down busy thoroughfares. I learned how/when to use turn signals at intersections and when changing lanes on highways. (All Basic Common Sense 101) I also learned toughness, as being a cautious and safe driver sometimes makes you the most unpopular person in others’ world, an idea I deduced from some people signaling to me that I am number one.

Another thing I learned back then, because there weren’t any cars that drive themselves like they do today, was to trust my gut regarding my driving skills, which I try to do, even with the cameras and beepers, and any other extras cars have these days. When I finally got a car with all the bells and whistles and I tried to parallel park using the camera and screen, I’d have to start over multiple times, or I’d hit the curb often, until I realized I had been a very good Parallel Parker (if I do say so myself) before trying the gadgets, and then I became frustrated and lost confidence. I, then, remembered, “Repetition breeds Habit,” and a line from Kevin Kostner’s movie, “For Love of the Game,” where Billy Chapel (a tired pitcher wondering if he could accomplish something great),uttered a line, mentally convincing his unsure self, “three more…like I done a million times.” Since then, I haven’t used the screen in my car to parallel park again, I just say to myself, “Once more, like I did a million times,” trusting my gut, as when there was no gadget.

Driving the highways today is as stated before in this essay, like a racecar video game. Unfortunately, no one gets hurt if we crash in a video game. People, usually innocent people, can get hurt in the real world if everyone thinks of themselves instead of each other. Driver’s education in my school planted the seeds of not driving with tunnel vision, thinking only about ourselves and our route, but thinking of others, while teaching proper stopping at stop signs, when to open your car door parked on a street, how to be a courteous driver and respecting others’ rights to a lane, or just being kind, sometimes, and letting the person who got to the stop sign at/near the same as you, go first.

Some will say it’s too expensive to offer drivers education in schools, but isn’t that just another way of putting a price tag on human life?