You wake up and everyone wants to know what you are doing with your life. You can’t seem to figure out why you are at high school and yet you are stuck here for 4 years in classes that don’t make sense for you. Pressure mounting from everywhere it seems with nothing but questions. Who are you? How do you pick the right friends? What do you do with this social situation? Did we just hold a practice for what to do during a school shooting?
This and more is what is in the young brains of teenagers you are putting behind the wheel. And I can tell you this because I was one of them and this is why teen driver safety is so important. It is a huge responsibility (driving a fierce weapon) being given to inexperienced and growing human beings.
I remember hearing this during driver’s education. Maybe it stuck with me but now that I am few years older, I can see the importance of more being done with teenagers being given this opportunity to drive. And it’s complicated my many challenges, such as social pressure and phone addictions. More than anything, most teenagers are just plain scared.
One of the most maybe surprising things I think is that teenagers don’t want to drive for the most part. I didn’t. I really want anything to do with it. My mom subtly coached me into staying with it. She knew it was an important part of my adulting and an important of my independence. She went slow with me. I think that was really important.
I remember her pushing me to get through the first class and get my permit but after that, I took a long time to drive before I went for the second class and my license. She let me have the space to grow. It didn’t have to be 60 hours and go to the next step. It didn’t have to be a rush. For me, having that extra time and coaching was important.
Another cool thing my mom did was take me to an empty parking lot and have me do a figure 8. It was the first time I thought driving was actually fun. There was a bit of exhilaration in maneuvering the curves. At the time, I didn’t understand the exercise. I just thought it was fun. But I realize now that she was teaching me how to control the vehicle slowly and more important, be comfortable with that.
Driver’s education did teach me some things though that I wouldn’ t have thought of. I remember being out with friends and we were going about a business. A car started to mess with us by crossing over into my lane. I didn’t react. I pulled off to a side street but the car turned around and followed us. We didn’t hesitate. We called 911 and had the police come right away. I remembered the driver’s education class discussing road rage and incidents like that but I never thought it would happen to me.
In summary, there are many things we can do to make teenagers more comfortable and safer on the roads. First, I do think its important to customize different driving plans for different teenagers. Learning to drive safely should be an expectation but it should not be another thing that causes stress for teenagers. By customizing plans such as giving teenagers more time to practice, the teenager is better prepared to drive but also hopefully more motivated to drive.
Next, I think teenagers should be given more opportunities to practice exercises such as the figure 8 my mom made me do. Giving a safe space where a teenager can practice slamming on the breaks or driving on ice would be extremely helpful in preparing teenagers for what might happen on the road.
Lastly, driving today feels like another task that needs to be done or something else to stress out teens. In this way, it sort of sets itself up to be unsuccessful. How do you properly train a teenager when they are stressed about that training? My mom talks about how she couldn’t wait to get her license. It took me a while to figure that out. Driving meant I could do things with my friends. Driving meant I could go places. Driving meant independence. I think that is lost in presenting driving as something else a teenager has to do without why or what it means for the teenager.

In summary, drivers’ education is important to ensure young drivers are safe. Innovations such as customizing training plans or providing safe ways for teenagers to practice are crucial to ensuring this happens.