Teach Don’t Tell

Teach Don’t Tell

By: Ell Roberts

You are driving down the road. It is a usual day; the sun is shining and the birds are chirping. You are going to meet up with your friends at the park and you get a text from one of your friends. You pick up the phone to read the text and swerve into oncoming traffic. Crashes like these are often time fatal for one or both of the parties involved. The aftermath is brutal, with broken glass and blood cover the ground. As you lay, almost most lifeless, in your car waiting for the police and EMS to arrive you think how you could have prevented this. If you hadn’t looked at the text, if you hadn’t picked up the phone, you would be sitting in the park with your friends going about your day.

Texting and driving are one of the many reasons for car wrecks, especially among people my age. During middle school and high school, we are always told the dangers of texting and driving. We are given a list of statistics and facts about the tragedies of distracted driving but we are never shown them. To combat the raising number of distracted driving incidents there needs to be some sort of visual element for students to partake in. During my time in high school, I developed an event called Pep Rally for Life. I worked with local EMS, police, firefighters, and even helicopter medical staff to accurately create a scenario of drunk driving. The entire school attended this event and were able to visualize the possible outcome of drunk driving. All students should have to take part in an event or video like this so that the message can hit home.

Furthermore, another reason for car crashes is people not knowing how to respond to different situations. This can include driving in rain, snow, ice, windy conditions, etc. To better prepare people for these possibilities, when they receive their license, they should be required to take a defensive driving course. Courses like these teach students how to drive in all conditions and how to get themselves out of different situations. For example, it can teach them skills and tips such as, using low beams in fog, how to maneuver the car if they hydroplane, and what to do if they hit ice patches. This will allow everyone to drive confidently and safely no matter the day.

Overall, it is important to show and teach our young drivers instead of just telling. Implementing these systems when they first start driving creates an atmosphere of safe driving knowledge for them. To many people are just sent onto the road with no real knowledge of how their actions might affect others. By showing and teaching we give students real life examples as to what can happen and teach them that driving is a huge responsibility that needs to be taken seriously. Safe driving should start when students first hit the road and no later because deathly accidents can happen at any moment.