Driver's License Delima...

I have thre daughters. Two of which are teenagers and the third that might as well be even though she's passed those specific years by a few extra years. As the parent of a teenager in North Carolina, I have discovered a delima with the driver's license bureau, and I'm certain that many of you may have noticed this too with your own children.

In NC you must have a license to have insurance, and you must have insurance to have a license. The resolution of this is that when you pass your driver's education class you are then put on your parent's insurance for the term of your learner's permit. In our state, that's a year, or until the date of your sixteenth birthday, or in the case of my oldest girl, a later birthday because you didn't want to learn to drive on your sixteenth...

I guess when I was a kid it was easier to learn to drive. I took driver's ed the summer I was 15 and the day after my sixteenth birthday, I took my driving test and had my license. I don't recall having to take a 200 question test at the end of driver's ed. And I don't recall having to drive more than twice with the driver's ed teacher in the car. But now days, that's what our kids have to do.

One of my daughters has trouble taking tests. She stresses, she panics and she freezes up when she reads the questions... and yet they will NOT allow her the option of taking the test verbally. Other kids in her class have admitted to taking this long test and answering the questions by 'christmas tree' or ACDC. Which is to say that they simply make patterns out of the dots for the answers instead of actually answering the questions... AND THEY PASS!!

I don't know about you, but that scares me! Kids faking the answers to the tests and getting a passing score because the test is so long that the can't possibly pass it without at least some guesswork?? What happened to taking the good ole 20 question test like the REAL thing and then if you fail you know what to study and try again. As it stands, the kids aren't even told what it is that they messed up on... they have to simply study more and try again next time.

And if you mess up on the driving part of it you have to go all the way back and start over again. Not just the driving part, the whole damn thing! Another day or two out of regular classwork, another shot at a 200 question test and then hope like hell you don't screw up something on the driving part again. By the time the kid gets behind the wheel they are either so overloaded with information that they forget half of it or give up before they even get their license because it's just too much to ask!

People say that repitition is the way to learn something, but I think that there's a limit to that process. Wouldn't it be better to know the subject matter you're taking the test on instead of the pattern of the answers? Wouldn't it be better for the driver's education teacher to TEACH and explain how a vehicle works and what the laws of the road are instead of just handing out a book that reads like stereo instructions. And having the kids watch horrifying movies that scare you of what might happen if you screw up on the road? They watch fictional horror movies worse than any 'Death on the Highway' film out there! Do you really think that scares them?? It's all movies, and believe me, they've seen worse!

Yes, we are taking a risk to teach our kids to drive. We are putting them behind the wheel of a two ton chunk of metal and hoping like hell that they don't speed, don't break the law and don't kill themselves or someone else in the process of getting from point a to point b... but wouldn't that be better done if they were TAUGHT in class rather than just expected to read a book, watch a few films and answer a set of questions so long that their eyes glaze over before they reach the end?

Making sure they know the rules of the road is a must. Making sure they know how to be safe in the vehicle is a must. But there's a fine line between giving them the information they can use and giving them so much information that they forget a good majority of it when they get behind the wheel.

My suggestion... lower the number of questions on the test and make them worth more points. Stop trying to put the driver's education test on the same bell curve as the rest of the school's tests and start teaching our kids how to drive instead of expecting them to memorize a set of stereo instructions from a book that loses their attention half way through.

Parents take the time to talk with your kids and teach them how to drive. Hell, take them out in a cornfield and let them learn what the vehicle can do. A school parking lot in the middle of summer time (if the principal will allow) is a perfect place to learn, but it will take the help of parents doing their job to get the point across.

Schools, lower the number of questions on the test and focus on the things that really matter, like the rules of the road. Teach the kids what they need to know by hiring a teacher that is willing to TEACH them about the vehicle. Better still, give the students the opportunity to understand how the vehicle works. Hold an automechanics class for new drivers. Tire pressure, fueling, checking the oil, how and where to pull over safely. If nothing else, talk to the local police and have someone come in and explain the rulse of the road from their point of view. Take teaching back to basics and TEACH for a change instead of handing the kids a book and expecting them to read it an understand without any help at all.

And last but not least. Insurance companies... get off you greedy marketing strategies and give us parents a break. If you want responsible drivers on the road, stop making it so hard for us parents to give you that with your price gouging. There's no excuse for it, statistically speaking, you know that you're wrong.

And that's my rant for the day....

Dragon Lady