It is the American Dream of every red-blooded American young man to own his own car. The bigger and faster the car, the better—even in this day of high gas prices. How can you possibly catch the eye of a cute chick if you don’t drive by her in your cool car and whistle at her or try to pick her up? Of course, in order to achieve this American Dream of car ownership, one must first learn to drive.
It all started with my older brother, Mark, saying, “Who’s driving this car? I’m certainly not. Somebody better grab the wheel!” I would look across the front seat at him, sitting behind the steering wheel, with his hands folded calmly over his stomach and a slight grin on his face. As the car motored on its way at a slow, gradual angle towards the curb, my quick, panicked expression coincided with me grabbing the steering wheel to swerve us back on a straight course. This was usually my signal to steer for a couple of blocks. This little ritual, or rite of passage, was always performed without Mom in the car. If she were to witness this, she may have given me the impression that this was unacceptable behavior for an eleven-year-old boy. I would consider this my first introduction to driver’s education, along with my curiosity concerning the function of certain pedals, levers, buttons, and knobs.
You would think that my mother would have welcomed the notion that her “responsible” older son was preparing her youngest for the inevitable driving test although it was still a few years down the road. Sadly, she was not afforded the same generous assistance. When my Mom was 16 years old (possibly younger) back around 1939, her neighbor took her out to an old Ford truck in the middle of a cow pasture, pointed to the pedals, shifter, and steering wheel, explained how they worked, and basically wished her the best of luck. That was about the extent of her driver’s training.
I don’t think my mother was alone when it came to the degree of training that a new driver received back then. According to an article on the Smithsonian National Museum of History’s website, “Early motorists were taught to drive by automobile salesmen, family and friends, or organizations like the YMCA” (“America” 1).
I evolved to my next level of training when an older friend and I used to drive out to camp on his wooded property near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. I was around 15 years old, and it was back in the mid-70’s. Once we got to the long stretches of farm roads, he would pull off to the side, there would be a hasty “Chinese fire drill,” and I would be in the driver’s seat of his manual-shift Volkswagen van. I was now driving and learning stick shift with nothing but open country road ahead of me. I think I still owe him a transmission.
Although the laws and rules haven’t changed much since I learned to drive, a lot has changed since my mother’s earliest days of driving. Just try to obtain a driver’s license without proof of insurance. Parents must be able to add their children to their insurance policies in order for them to drive, and also, by putting the new driver on their policy, it keeps the rates down. One thing that will make these rates go up or even cause an insurer to drop the parents as policy holders is a new driver with a high accident rate. This is simple math for the insurance company. I know this only because it was branded into my memory when I was learning to drive.
According to Doug Patterson, a Mentor High school junior that I spoke with who recently got his driver’s license, if you are under 18 in Ohio, you have to have documentation to prove that you had training before you can be licensed. If you are 18-year-olds or older, you only need to take the written test. In addition to the classroom hours and the eight hours of actual driving time that are required, Doug spent well over the required fifty hours of driving with parental supervision that was needed in order for him to get his license.
So, with our modern roads more congested than ever, cars faster and more powerful, confusing, high speed freeways everywhere, and rampant road rage, are the new drivers of today educated well enough to be safe, responsible drivers? Patrick Kiger, who wrote an article for Good Housekeeping magazine addressing this question, does not think so. As a result of tight budgets, Kiger states in his article that some school systems are cutting back on courses that they don’t consider to be fundamental. One school system in Reno, Nevada only has a classroom driver’s education course. There is no actual driving time included in the training (1).
Kiger responds to the safety issue concerning this trend in educating our new drivers in this way:
Is this the right time to take driver’s ed off the road? Statistics suggest that it is not. Over the next five years, more than four million 16-year-olds are expected to put the pedal to the metal—and these novice drivers are the riskiest group on the road, with a crash rate five times that of 20-year-old drivers. Instead of serving up a movie and lecture and thinking we’ve taught kids to be safe, we should be offering programs that will really help protect them—and the motorists they’ll soon encounter. (1-2)
The author goes on to talk about how driving instructors should be certified with three college-level courses, according to The American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association (Kiger 2). This, to me, is a step in the right direction, and I also think that there should be more emphasis on the amount of actual driving time spent in the course of instruction.
When my Mom learned to drive, her training was almost entirely hands-on. The portion of my training that was actual drive time was about 40% of the course (not including the “private” lessons with my brother and friend). This was fairly extensive, considering my driver’s education course was two or three classes a week for an entire semester. The school offered Doug a two-week, after school course which included 24 hours of classroom lecture. Fortunately, his parents spent more than the additional, required 50 hours of on-the-road parental coaching for him to get his license.
Mom has been driving almost 70 years now with one, small, no-fault fender bender and a couple of speeding tickets. I have been legally on the road over 30 years with not quite as an impressive of a record as my mother’s, but nothing serious. Doug is a bright, level-headed driver, with a perfect driving record, so far, and a lifetime of driving ahead of him. I wish him and his generation the best.
As for my 15-year-old daughter, I have an old school attitude toward the pre-driver’s education that I’d like her to get. This could probably involve a large, vacant parking lot (instead of a cow pasture), and a pass on that second cup of coffee, for I plan to be there, white-knuckling it by her side. I would hope that she will be able to hit the ground running when she first takes the driving portion of driver’s ed. My daughter’s ultimate success as a driver is directly proportionate to her own safety, the safety of others, and my insurance rates. And who knows, maybe my daughter will be the one driving in her fancy car, picking up boys? Isn’t this every teenager’s American Dream?
LAST BEST HOPE AUTHOR'S BLOG Historian and author, David L. Parrott on-site in the Oil boom Ghost town of Pithole Pa,. Follow links below to new documentary about my new novel THE LAST BEST HOPE at Pithole Ghost Town Documentary - in youtube Here's a short TV Commercial developed to promote the ok: check it out on youtube - just search BestHopeCommercial on youtube to view If you would like to purchase the book, please visit my website at www.greybarnbooks.com 
