The Suprising Start to a Positive Change

The Surprising Start to a Positive Change

Heaven forbid, if high schoolers have to sit in a room for two hours
just to learn about drivers safety in their drivers training class. I
mean, all high schoolers must be untouchable when it comes to
dangers of the road, right? Although those two sentences involve
heavy sarcasm, many teenagers still believe they are untouchable
behind the wheel. As a high school senior, I’ve observed a lot during
these past four years. If it’s witnessing someone texting while
driving, hearing stories of others driving while intoxicated or just
being careless behind the wheel, actions do have consequences.
Driver’s training is vital to a young teenager before sitting in the
driver’s seat. Yes, it is important to know how to turn the
windshield wipers on, but it is even more necessary to know how much
power you have behind the wheel, that is, in my opinion, what makes
drivers training so very important. What happens if you did
everything right, you listened and practiced driver safety by wearing
your seatbelt, putting your phone away where you can’t be distracted,
keeping both hands on the wheel and staying alert. What if you
followed the rules and still suffered someone else’s consequences? My
mom’s best friend in high school died from being hit by a drunk
driver. I put myself in her shoes and cannot comprehend the pain of
losing a friend because someone else had made a poor choice. Don’t
just practice driver safety for yourself, do it for the minivan next
to you with 3 children in it headed to soccer practice. Do it for the
grandparents next to you headed to their favorite coffee shop. Do it
for the parent headed home from work excited to see their kids when
they get home. Do it for the teenagers who are headed home after a
long day of school, sports and work. There are literally infinite
stories on why you need to stay alert on the road. For me personally,
the last time I had been educated about driver safety was sophomore
year drivers training. I think adding safety lessons given by drivers
ed teachers to the students could go a long way. As a teen, I
especially feel as though we need more advocates for change
surrounding our age group. I believe we need to tackle this issue in
our schools. Whether it’s extra drivers ed classes, teachers
talking to their students, taking time out of scheduled teaching to
show a video or having students speak out about the problem to other
students; if we take the time to educate not only during drivers
training, but school as well, I think teenagers can be the surprising
start to a positive change.