Back to Basics

Growing up, teenagers must navigate the ins and outs of their educational career, but some students ignore this facet of their life and prioritize socializing with their peers and exercising their freedom as they prepare themselves for adulthood. Unfortunately, independence is difficult when you’re a minor, which is why every teenager looks forward to the day they become 16 years of age, as they know that signifies a rite of passage and the broadening of their horizons as they’ll finally be able to get their driver’s license. Of course, in order to acquire such a coveted item, they must first attend a driver’s education class, a task that assuredly would elicit groans from many a teenager. As droll as it may be, Driver’s Education plays an important role in keeping both drivers and pedestrians safe, since having no proper procedure to follow would lead to unrestrained havoc in the streets and mass casualties.

Driver’s Education class equips new learners with the tools they’ll need in order to engage with the rest of vehicular society in an organized and safe way, while also teaching them how to appropriately respond to any potential hazards that they may and will come across on their long-lasting journeys. Hazards such as fog, strong winds, and icy roads are just some of the potentially fatal impediments that could cost a driver their life, but luckily these classes will guide newcomers on how to deal with these dilemmas and try to ensure that no harm comes to them or others on the road. That being said as mentioned before, the biggest obstacle Driver’s Ed has to overcome in order to create safe future drivers is boredom, as some students simply see it as a chore they have to undertake in order to get what they truly want.

I believe that in order to get students to truly absorb the information they are being presented with, Driver’s Ed needs to be more proactive in regard to how they teach the material. In my experience with Driver’s Ed, we were bombarded with a deluge of information in a very dry manner, which unfortunately led to many students directing their attention elsewhere. Making Driver’s Ed more palatable to students would go a long way in making sure that students actually pay attention and implement what they learned, which would increase the number of better safe drivers on the road while reducing the number of automobile related deaths that occur frequently. Obviously there are aforementioned environmental hazards that can be just as unpredictable as any bad driver, which is why I think extra emphasis should be put into teaching students how to deal with them as well, as being prepared for natural and manmade disasters could be incredibly beneficial.

Luckily for me, my friends and family have taken the rules of the road seriously and have not engaged in any untoward driving behavior, although in High School I would always hear stories of how some of my peers would get in vehicular accidents. I myself have had a close call when driving, and while you might expect this to have occurred early on in my driving career, it actually occurred after some years of driving. I was driving along a backroad when I came across a fork in the road, and while I had my turn signal on I noticed that another car was approaching from the direction I was going to take. Rather than giving the other car the right-of-way, I absentmindedly took the turn and if it wasn’t for the fact the other driver was more attentive and stopped I would’ve been the cause of a pretty bad accident.

This event reminded me that no amount of driving experience will help me in a situation if I forget something as fundamental as the right-of-way, which illustrates how important it is to know the proper rules of driving. If anything it seems that driving experience has the effect of making drivers feel as though they can never make a mistake, seeing as they have made it this far in their driving career. Unfortunately, it’s this type of mindset that is the most vulnerable to the most minor yet crucial mistakes, which is why ingraining the basics into the minds of students should be prioritized. As time has gone on and I have gained more driving experience, I have learned that it is important for myself and others to always remember the basics of driver safety as one momentary lapse in judgment could spell disaster for yourself and your loved ones.