Education is Key

Making
Drivers ed Mandatory

Reagan
Long

Vincennes
University

Making Drivers ed Mandatory

Since
1885 people have been putting themselves in danger by getting behind
the wheel of a vehicle. No matter the age, humans are subject to
accidents and are increasingly likely to cause them when operating a
vehicle. In some cases, it truly is an unfortunate series of events,
but usually, it is the fault of a distracted, young, or inexperienced
driver. Drivers ed courses teach young people the rules of the
road before allowing them on the road and allow them to practice with
a professional before driving independently. Regardless of age, a
drivers ed course should be required before receiving a
driver’s license, because it produces safer drivers, and reduces
accident rates among young drivers.

The
idea behind teaching young drivers the rules of the road before
allowing them to drive is to create an overall safer driving
community and reduce accident rates. Current research shows that
“teens who complete standards-based drivers ed programs
are safer drivers” (Huff, 2006, p. 306). There was a study that
compared the accident rates of students who have taken a driver
education course and that of those of have not. The study showed that
accident rates decreased when students were educated prior to earning
their license and were safer drivers as a whole. According to David
Huff, “quantity of driving experience alone is insufficient to
develop safe driving skills” (2006, p. 306) and the quality of
drivers ed is what truly creates safer drivers. Driving for 40
hours before earning a license does not guarantee that those hours
were spent driving correctly, but if students are driving with a
trained professional, they will learn the right way to drive and be
practicing those skills instead of spending 40 hours building bad
habits.

Allowing amateurs to teach young
drivers only creates more amateurs, adding to the existing road
safety issue. If teenagers have observed their parents poor driving
habits throughout their life, they are likely to inherit them if the
only driving instruction they receive is from their parents; if
taught good habits by a professional, they will be less of a danger
to unsuspecting civilians on the road. As stated by Andrea Nakaya,
“we treat [driving] as one more rite of passage” (2006 p.1)
instead of a skill set one must master to earn the privilege of
driving. A license is not equivalent to the drink an untrodden
twenty-one-year-old buys on their birthday, simply because it is a
milestone that affects others, and could potentially cause harm.
Driving is a skill that requires “study, manual dexterity,
judgment, concentration and maturity”, (Nakaya 2006, p.1) all of
which are not acquired by the passing of time but the effort to gain
them. Unlike many responsibilities, driving is not one that should be
earned solely on the coming of age, but rather the ability to drive
responsibly and safely. Giving a teenager a license who has not
demonstrated the skills and maturity to have one, is putting not only
his/her life, but the lives of others in danger. Making driver
education mandatory would diminish, if not extinguish unsafe drivers.

Over
the past fifteen years, driver’s licenses have been awarded in stages
based upon age and education level, which has seemed to decrease the
number of accidents in the first year of teenagers driving (Mohn 2012
p.1). While this change has brought a season of safety to the roads
by restricting young drivers from having young, non-family
passengers, and driving past a certain hour, there still is no
parallel to drivers ed when it comes to creating safer drivers.
There has been an attempt to draw more teens to be educated by
allowing them to bypass certain stages if they take drivers ed.
This has been noted as “counterproductive” and to “do
more harm than good” (McCartt 2012). While these young drivers
are educated, they are not given limitations to the number of
distractions and dangers they expose themselves to in their early
driving endeavors. The graduation program slowly gives young drivers
more responsibility to lessen the likelihood of an accident within
the first year of driving; allowing teenagers to skip a leg in the
stages, while it is enticing to young drivers, could realistically be
putting them in more danger.

Driver
education may not teach maturity and awareness but has been proven
effective in decreasing the number of accidents young drivers have.
Graduates of drivers ed have been involved in “12 percent
fewer crashes, 20 percent fewer convictions for driving offenses and
about 50 percent fewer suspended licenses” (Mohn 2012, p.2) than
their uneducated counterparts. The statistical evidence alone
indicates that drivers ed produces safer drivers and should be
mandatory before a license is earned. Since there is no standard for
drivers ed, there is a wide variety of knowledge gained prior
to getting behind the wheel. While some states such as Oregon include
“classroom training, substantial supervised driving instruction
and parental involvement” (Mohn 2012, p.2) other states do not
provide such adequate education for young drivers. In Sacramento
California, a young boy went to the movies and never returned. It was
only a few weeks before his 17th birthday, and he was killed in a
crash with another young driver. The California drivers ed
system does the “minimum amount to prepare young drivers before
giving them control of a lethal weapon” (Mohn 2012, p.2). The
vast array of standards for educating young drivers would lessen if a
drivers ed course was a requirement for all young drivers. To
produce a safer generation of drivers, the education standard must be
raised. If drivers ed was mandatory before receiving a license,
maybe the young boy from California would have come home from the
movies that night.

Those
who say that “drivers ed does little to educate new
drivers” (Zuber 2006) are, to a degree, correct. The current
method of educating young drivers does fall short of demonstrating
anything more than the fundamentals of driving but has been proven to
increase the safety of young drivers. There is a depth to the skill
of operating a vehicle. One must possess the concentration,
awareness, and maturity to hold such power and responsibility, all of
which are touched upon in drivers ed. It is not the fault of
the educators, but that of the standards, or the lack thereof. Young
drivers must be adequately educated if one is expecting to observe a
safer society of drivers. Requiring young drivers to complete the
course successfully, instead of allowing then to receive a driver’s
license based solely on a single test score, should begin the
succession of safer drivers. By allowing teenagers to omit driver
education with the only goal being to pass a driving test, the system
has already failed. If education becomes mandatory it will prove
effective by teaching not only the rules of the road but the
fundamentals of safe driving as well. Instead of clicking through an
online course, or learning from a simulator, young drivers “need
to feel a car’s reaction to their inputs” (Zuber 2006). True
learning is achieved through experience, and one cannot gain
effective experience without proper instruction from a professional
and supervised demonstration of safe driving. If drivers ed
becomes a requirement for earning a license, there would be a
decrease in infractions and accidents caused by young drivers.

Driver
education teaches young drivers how to be safe on the road before
allowing them to drive on it. Requiring proper instruction and
practice prior to driving independently allows mistakes to be
corrected, distractions to be limited, and accidents to be
infrequent. Education should be mandatory before receiving a license
because it has proven to be effective in creating safer drivers and a
reduction in accident rates in the early years of driving.

References

Huff, D. C. (2008). Driver
Education Lays a Foundation for Safe Teen Driving Skills. Teen
Driving. Retrieved from
https://go.gale.com/ps/dispBasicSearch.do?userGroupName=avon12&prodId=OVIC

McCartt,
Susan. “Education: Presidents 92 Budget in Education: Mixed
Bag.” PsycEXTRA
Dataset,
1991, doi:10.1037/e382202004-033.

Mohn, T. (2012). The Mixed Bag of
Drivers ed. The New York Times. Retrieved from
https://go.gale.com/ps/dispBasicSearch.do?userGroupName=avon12&prodId=OVIC

Nakaya, A. C. (Ed.). (2006,
January 1) Better Drivers ed Will Make Young Drivers Safer.
Retrieved from
https://go.gale.com/ps/dispBasicSearch.do?userGroupName=avon12&prodId=OVIC

Zuber, K. L. (2006). Death at the
Wheel; Traditional drivers ed does little to educate new
drivers. Auto Week, 56(36). Retrieved from
https://go.gale.com/ps/dispBasicSearch.do?userGroupName=avon12&prodId=OVIC