Who should do the teaching?
I spend a lot of my time volunteering. I coach sports, have been a leader in the boy scouts and I help out with school trips. I like to share my time with my kids and others kids and teach them things they should know. I know a lot of people who do the same, but in reality; they shouldn’t. I’m referring to people teaching their kids how to drive. Have you ever thought about doing that?
I was a guest on a local TV news show a few years ago and one of the hosts asked me if people should teach their own kids to drive. I immediately said no, but had to explain why. Just because you can operate a vehicle doesn’t mean you can teach other people how to operate one. The example I used with the host was; just because you know how to brush your teeth, doesn’t mean you should fill your own kid’s cavity. Teaching someone to drive should have the values. Just because you can make it around corners and get to point A from point B without a ticket or a crash, doesn’t mean you know how to teach someone else how to drive. There’s a lot to know before you can teach someone anything!
When I was on the Discovery Network’s TV series Canada’s Worst Driver as one of their on-air judges, one of the participants explained to us how her grandfather, who was a bad driver, taught her dad how to drive. Her dad was a bad driver because of that and he taught both her and her brother how to drive. All of these people have had major crashes and this participant of the show even hit the same pedestrian twice! I’m hoping they haven’t killed anyone yet; including themselves.
Let’s face it, most people feel they are good drivers, but if that’s the case, why is there a crash every 2.5 seconds across North America? Since most crashes involve at least two drivers, why wouldn’t at least one of the drivers do something to avoid the collision? And these people want to teach their kids to drive? Come on, let a professional do that job. It’s tough enough to be patient with your own kids and they have to respect you enough to trust you. If your kids went through training with a professional, they’ll trust them more and besides; the professional instructor is up to date on all of the rules of the road. They can help your kids do their best and pass their road test.
So, as much as we want to help, we need to let the professionals do their job. And who knows, you may even learn a thing or two from them as well!