On a lesson with a pupil last night, his speed was far too high coming into some junctions. It resulted in him messing up the gears a few times, coasting, going too wide, and anything else that this particular fault (well, planning for the junction – the speed is just a symptom) brings with it.
We dealt with it appropriately during the lesson, although I wouldn’t necessarily say we had sorted it by the end of the lesson. So when we did the debrief at the end I wanted to talk about it some more.
Now, you’ve got to realise that this pupil has spiky black hair and dresses in way that once made me suggest that he was into EMO music. I won’t go into the effect this had on him at the time, but let’s just say that it turns out he isn’t, and that you should never judge people solely on appearance. And be ready for their reaction if you do, and get it wrong!
However, I never miss an opportunity to wind him up over the episode.
In the debrief, the conversation went like this (and this is a real one again, although not a precise transcript):
Me: How did you think the lesson went?
He: I wasn’t happy with it at all. I drove crap.
Me: Well, it wasn’t all bad – you haven’t driven for a while but you did all of the manoeuvres at the start OK, and most of your driving was fine. What were the bad parts you were thinking of?
He: Well, I stalled it once, and I kept missing the gears.
Me: I’m not too worried about the stalling. Why do you think you messed up the gears?
He: Well, I’ve not driven for a while.
Me: Mmmm. Maybe, but I don’t think that has much to do with it. What did we stop to talk about several times in that lesson?
He: My speed.
Me: And what about your speed?
He: It was too fast.
Me: Yes, but that wasn’t the only problem though, was it? What about going wide on those junctions? Why did that happen?
He: I was going too fast.
Me: No, come on. We’ve talked about this before. Coming into a turn you have to check your mirrors and signal, slow down, change gear as necessary, make sure it’s safe, then go if it’s clear. You know all that. What’s going to happen if you come in too fast?
He: I won’t have time to do it all.
Me: Exactly! So when you got into a mess with the gears it was because you were rushing to do it in time for the corner, and when you went wide it was because you were messing with the gears and trying to steer, and when you had to slam the brakes on it was because you panicked because you knew you were going too fast – especially when you’d got the clutch down and it was speeding up even more because you were coasting [edited: we also looked at the effects that this might have on other road users]. Can you see where all this is heading?
He: Yes, I need to think about doing it further up the road so I’m not running out of time.
Me: That’s right, and let’s not forget you weren’t getting it wrong all the time – just some of the time. Your concentration just seemed to go.
He: Well, I don’t like driving in the dark, and I haven’t driven for a long time.
Me: I don’t think that’s the reason [switching to wind-up mode]. After all, we’ve talked about your speed in these situations before – and that was during the day, and when you’d had lessons the week before. You were driving like a chav…
He: Hey, thanks [reciprocating]. I’m not a chav…
Me: …so as well as being an EMO, you’re also a chav now?
He: So… a ch-emo? [pronounced chee-mo]
In the end, we agreed on that new word ‘ch-emo’.