Driver’s Education: An Essential Step to Living

Driver’s Education: An Essential Step to Living

To live in the US, being able to drive safely is an essential part of daily life, be it commuting to work, running errands, or going place to place to visit friends and enjoy what is offered outside of home. However, it is impossible to simply climb into a car and start driving. Most people learn how to drive from their parents. However, from what I’ve seen, drivers who learn exclusively this way end up being inexperienced in certain areas, and without a proper driver’s education, with no knowledge to lean on.

In many cases, a high school driver’s ed class is one that tends to be brushed aside, with students focusing on their other classes, like science, math, and English. Students then proceed to learn from their parents, focusing on the things necessary where they live. There are of course the basics. Speed limits, stop signs, driving in rain, and learning to handle towns and cities. However, students living in low, flat areas may struggle with mountains and snow, as this is something they never learned from their parents. This is where driver’s education becomes more important, as with that knowledge to fall back on, even a driver inexperienced with the conditions can at least make it out safely, even if not smoothly. As is the case, a driver’s ed class should be mandatory, even if only once, for every person in the US. This is to prepare students for situations they might encounter with no one in the passenger’s seat to help them, situations including brake failure, mountains, major cities, and on a slightly different note, peer pressure.

In my personal driver’s education experience, it’s been emphasized over and over how important it is to remain aware, focused, and of course, sober. I’ve seen firsthand the negative effects of unawareness on the road. Last year, my brother was hit from behind at a red light by a man who didn’t notice and didn’t stop, totaling his car. Every year, I see crashes in the winter, people speeding along mountain roads and sliding on ice, and people crashing into animals that they don’t notice until it’s too late. Similarly, I hear stories of many of my friends getting injured by drunk drivers, people who failed to take in the risk of drunk driving. Overall, people who’ve taken a driver’s education course have a much lower tendency to drive drunk. As such, in order to push people in the right direction, driver’s ed becomes essential, even more so than it already was.

Overall, driver’s ed is an essential part of learning to drive for two main reasons. Firstly, it covers gaps in knowledge, helping people with limited experience in certain areas have the knowledge, even though they may be lacking experience, to drive safely and in control in all situations, environments, and weather. Secondly, driver’s ed drives home the importance of certain aspects of driving that otherwise might be seen as a rule that can be broken at convenience, but should be seen as absolute, mainly the need to obey traffic laws, pay attention, and stay sober. I think that by making driver’s ed a one-time mandatory course, both for those over and under 18, more lives can be saved on the road every day.