With Knowledge Comes Great Power, With Power Comes Great Responsibility

While driver’s education is crucial in creating a safe environment on the road, it is up to each driver to respect and acknowledge the power and risks of being behind the wheel. However, I do not believe that driving education is taken as seriously as it should, nor is it respected for its full importance: it keeps people alive.

In Virginia, it is mandatory to take Driver’s Education in every public high school curriculum alongside 10th-grade physical education. Even back then, I had some semblance of an understanding of how important driving was, and how dangerous it could become. The movies and videos about drunk driving and road rage got to me. The same cannot be said for many of my peers, though. Many fell asleep during class or skipped it altogether because it was boring – and in some cases, they were already driving even without their permits.

This lack of understanding is problematic because, as the saying goes, “With knowledge comes power, and with power comes great responsibility”. If driver’s education is the knowledge, then driving is the power, and it should not be taken lightly. Driving allows people to get where they need to go quickly and conveniently, but it can also be disastrous if not done properly. In fact, while researching for this essay, I read about a boy whose mother injured her spine in an accident due to another driver’s negligence of the rules of the road. Incidents like these should not be as frequent of an occurrence as they are.

The effects are not always physical, though. Since moving to the state of Virginia, my mom has been in numerous accidents, which has caused her immense anxiety surrounding driving. People drive so recklessly here that the majority of these accidents have not even been her fault! I also have a lot of anxiety when it comes to driving – but not just because of my mom. During one of my driving lessons, I was practicing reversing, and accidentally accelerated backward into a tree, totaling my mom’s car. Luckily, no one was hurt (except for the car), but I was completely shaken up. It took me months to be ready to practice driving again, but this time with a renewed hypervigilance. If I thought I took driving seriously before, I certainly do now.

Not everyone will have a similar experience to mine to be able to fully understand the implications of driving, nor should they have to. I think, to reduce the number of deaths related to driving, there should be a larger emphasis placed on driver education. I think it is already comprehensive, having read through my driver’s education booklet, but I think the classes themselves need to be engaging. When I was in high school, my teacher had an extremely monotonous voice and didn’t seem to care all that much whether we passed or failed the class; and I know for a fact that a lot of kissed who earned their certification at the end of it should not have. Of course, his voice isn’t his fault, but the in-class instructors must be engaging during instruction and strict with who they let pass their classes. Not everyone on the road should be there.

Having grown up in Virginia for my entire life, I’ve constantly heard that nobody knows how to drive here from family and other community members. Because of that, I believe that stricter enforcement of road rules and laws should be put in place. For example, keeping up with traffic often involves speeding 20 miles over the limit. This should not ever be the case because it is not safe (or legal), especially when considering main roads near schools or residential areas.

Now that I have been on the road, I always make sure to stay in my lane and keep a safe distance from the cars around me. I constantly monitor my speed to ensure I’m within the limit, even if that means I have other drivers speeding around me to cut me off. I also make sure to keep a sweeping gaze to notice any changes across the road that might affect my driving. I’m still a new driver, but these precautions – which I learned through my driver’s education class and driving lessons – have kept me safe thus far. The knowledge from my driver’s education has given me the power and ability to drive safely and responsibly, which is a foundation every driver should have.