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"Tales of the Monocacee" |
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"Driving" Uncle Bill Gold was one of those people who believed he was a good driver because the Department of Motor Vehicles gave him a license, and he knew only two kinds of vehicle operators. Those like him, who followed "the book" slavishly, and those pigheaded ones who thought they "knew" how to drive and so just used common sense. In his life I think he never figured out how abysmally bad a driver he was. Driving, unlike bicycle riding, takes a long time and much practice, with the oriental requirement that one must improve or practice doesn't count. I started my youngest boy at ten and kept at it consistently, so, at sixteen, he WAS a good driver, and I didn't have to worry. (More than one worries about one's children even at their safest.) He smacked the garage door with my little Volvo 1800 within his first six months of education, then didn't have another accident until he drove my coupe into his mom's station wagon at seventeen. He's driven at least 30,000 miles a year now for four years, and I don't even think about worrying any more. His little sister hasn't been as eager to practice, but she put in an hour or two at the go-cart tracks when she turned ten, and she could change the oil and plugs by twelve. She's gotten about twenty miles on empty roads, some at the wheel of a school bus, and I gave her ownership of that selfsame 1800S last summer, which seems to have moved her enthusiasm up a notch or two. It doesn't run and has more rust than red, but she has a long term plan that has begun to unfold, and I feel confident that when she enters traffic with that shiny new license in her hand she'll be as capable as the boy was, and in a shiny little sports car. (She's already asked me to show her the hand signals. Yes, I even showed her the "drying fingernails" one.) Why aren't we teaching all our kids this way? It takes AT LEAST 100,000 miles to really know how to drive, and that assumes repeated trips are less than 20% of the mileage. It seems to me that driver's ed. should begin in the fifth grade and be a sidebar for the rest of school. We Really Really need good drivers. It's not like it's hard to do. At ten the only thing of real importance is orientation. Give 'em a log book like we do pilot trainees now, and just help 'em keep it in mind. If a teacher experiences something on the road, talk about it in class and log a moment. If Uncle Bill takes her to the drugstore, he can discuss what he's doing, and she can log it. If th' kid helps dad do the plugs, log it. (If dad's doin' th' plugs, call th' kid, for Pete's sake.) Then, when they reach fourteen and have enough hours logged, give 'em a learners, letting them know it'll be two years before they can get the real thing, but giving them the opportunity to practice, even if it's just to the stop sign at the end of the block for the first six months. My boy probably got a hundred miles up and back on two hundred yards of brick-faced alley before he ever ventured to asphalt. Some people are meant to be drivers, and some people aren't. There's little question about me, or my boy, but a lot of us really aren't that interested. They'll drive, because very few of us have a choice in that, but, all things considered, they'd just as soon not. And they'd rather not spend four years learning about it. All I can say is, some of us'd just as soon not learn Greek History. But all of us drive, and most of us don't know how, and that makes it a pretty dangerous situation. And besides, it's not like you're in class for four years. Motorheads'll probably have six logs used up when one book'll give you the skill necessary to know who you are on the road. I suddenly feel like I'm preaching to the converted. If you've read this far you're probably pretty much in agreement with me. The people in disagreement now are like Uncle Bill. I can hear them like they're in the same room . . . "I didn't need four years to learn to drive, and I've never had an accident. These people that think they "know how to drive" are the ones who cause all the accidents." No we don't. And we're not even IN the accidents when they're caused by unusual circumstances overwhelming inexperience. ('Tho we've bent the occasional fender.) We're just the ones who slow down after the fact, to see if we can get another bit of information that might help us avoid the next opportunity to crash. But the crashes are a lot caused by the kids, and mostly because of gross inexperience, or that fearful moment when you know just enough to get yourself killed. Early education can remedy that. (I was so glad that "the boy" hit that moment when the worst he could do was dent the fender on my red sport car.) They're going to have to drive by sixteen, and it takes about four years of sidebar education to put them on the road AND in control, so start 'em at ten. THE END :::::::::::: © John C. Hagerhorst |
