Driver’s ed is an experience almost all teens have to go through. Most consider it a rite of passage — one of the many shifts in responsibility and freedom that come with growing up.
While driver’s ed courses follow the same basics everywhere, some experiences at school are especially unpredictable and hectic.
“It wasn’t what the student did, but more or less what the squirrel did,” Aaron Pembroke, driver’s ed instructor, said. “The squirrel was happily running across the street, and for some reason, just stopped right in our tire tracks and proceeded not to move! ‘Crunch’ was all we heard and felt next. It was awful. We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry… so I think we might have laughed so hard we all had tears coming out.”
Driver’s ed encounters range from panic caused by other drivers to simple questions that reveal just how much a student driver still needs to learn.
In fact, 32-year driver’s ed teacher Marc Miller says one of the most common questions he gets is “Wait, which one’s the brake and which one’s the gas?”
Many aspects of driving can distract or overwhelm kids, which can lead to minor mistakes such as going too fast or too slow, braking too hard, or shaking the car slightly.
Michael Opsal, driver’s ed teacher, says the most common piece that messes students up is, “just more so the complex thinking of driving, with so much going on around us.”
With so many possible reasons for mistakes, plenty of current and previous driver’s ed students have their own odd accounts of enduring questionable driving.
“I think it was like the second time we were on the road, and the person said they had experience driving before, so I thought everything was gonna go okay,” junior Maya Berg said. “But, I don’t know if they were distracted or something, because they almost hit a trash can, and the driving instructor had to be like, ‘okay, let’s stop and let’s think about this now.’”
A handful of the crazy driving stories are not entirely unexpected, though, as some instructors say it’s possible to get a sense of a student’s driving habits before they even get in the car.
“You can sometimes predict whether or not a student is going to be a good driver or not prior to getting in the car. I would say some of the athletes that do well with their grades are more than likely good drivers when they start with us. But generalizations don’t always hold true, so you have to be careful with that,” Pembroke said.
But driver’s ed is not completely erratic. In fact, real crashes are rare, and the risk of school-issued driver’s ed is no more than the risk of usual driving.
“In my 16 years, I was accident-free until last year. There is always a possibility of a crash, no matter what, as far as whether you’re driving by yourself or your driving instructor,” Opsal said.
Despite the fact that driver’s ed has its own risks due to it placing new drivers behind the wheel, the structured practice helps students learn from the mistakes they and their peers make and ultimately improves their driving abilities in the future.
According to an article on easydriversed.com, “Attending such courses may aid in reducing points on one’s driving record, which can enhance their overall driving status and help avoid severe long-term consequences associated with poor driving records.”
For all its close calls and nervous laughter, driver’s ed remains an integral part of growing up, and necessary up get that license.