This article from The News of Portsmouth is interesting [dead link removed]. The author is a reporter for the publication.
The article is titled “There are some things your parents can’t teach you”, and is the author’s personal opinion regarding driving lessons – first with her dad, and then with a driving instructor.
I recently posted an article about private practice, and gave some examples of the kinds of things that can happen to make it… well, not very useful.
I’ve also got a shed load of stories about the family arguments caused when a parent or partner tries to teach a learner.
One current pupil goes out with his dad. After his first time out, I asked him if they’d ended up arguing – he couldn’t wait to unburden himself over how his dad shouted at him, always found fault, told him to do things differently to the way I’d taught him, tried to teach him a “better” way of parallel parking (but couldn’t explain how he – with 30 years experience – judged positions and when to steer, and so created massive confusion), and so on.
A while back, I’d arranged for a pupil’s husband to sit in the back on a lesson so he could see what to look for. At the end of the lesson, I wagged my finger theatrically and said:
Now promise me that you WON’T fall out over this!
My pupil replied:
You’re too late! We already have!
They were apparently not on proper speaking terms that day because of a lesson he’d taken her on the night before (and with hindsight, it explained the look on her face if he said anything during that lesson).
And another current pupil is often in a bad mood because he’s had an argument with his mum after she’s pointed something out while they’re driving to or from school that day.
I could give loads more examples, but the point is that as well as private practice sometimes being of poor quality due to the supervising driver not being necessarily a good driver or a good teacher, there are also the underlying “issues” that frequently exist within families which can prevent even good supervision being received well (i.e. there is no “detachment”)
Anyway, back to this article. The authour comments that although lessons are expensive they should still be a legal requirement becuase parents don’t have the training or detachment (see my comment above) necessary to do the job. She says that yelling at your kids on the street is one thing, but yelling at them when they are in control of the 2-litre family car is something else.
She mentions that things can go wrong – and cites the example of the mother accidentally killed by her daughter in a car park in an accident, but says others are lucky to get away with bumps or scrapes.
She concludes by saying that she believes there should be a retest every 5 years, more than 3 points for speeding, and lifetime bans for drink driving.
I agree fully with her comments, and the reference to the tragic accident involving that mother and daughter is very pertinent indeed.
Mind you, a serial commenter called Ripcords Ghost doesn’t. He or she thinks that the article is an “advertorial” and the reference to the mother who was killed is “very distasteful”.
Ripcords Ghost should get a life.