Teaching someone to Drive

At this point in my life I have taught at a minimum about 7 people to drive including my first wife when she was about 21 years old in 1973 and 1974. So, she was the first person I taught from scratch to getting a license. The reason I say I have taught about 7 is because some people you teach a few things to and then they are from another area and they have to learn from several different people. So, 7 is mostly my first wife, my kids and their friends etc. Lately, I'm teaching someone new to drive. It is one of my daughter's high school friends who is in college in Oregon most of the year. Her mother got her this far but she doesn't have the confidence yet. So, this kind of person is easy to teach to drive.

The hardest person to teach is someone who is overconfident (their present skills are less than they imagine). I was this kind of new driver and so I scared a lot of people. My youngest daughter was also like this and as a result she gave me a whiplash to my neck in too quick a stop at a stop sign while she was learning to drive.

So, as a driving instructor you have to first assess the abilities of the person you are teaching and also their focus in listening to you and following orders. If they can't follow your orders it is too dangerous to teach them at all. If they cannot concentrate on doing what you say then they are also too dangerous to teach.

So, this is the first thing to establish is whether they are even safe to teach to drive at all.

I tend to have what they sometimes call "Nerves of steel" but I don't see it that way. The way I look at it is I am very good as assessing people as to whether I can teach them anything or not. So, if someone isn't going to listen to me or respect what I say as their driving instructor then I won't teach them at all in the first place.

So, I will ONLY teach people who are good at following my suggestions and orders while driving.

Otherwise it just isn't going to work. Someone may want to learn to drive but they have to be in the right mind set that day to succeed at this and they have to be driving with a competent driver as an instructor who can help save them in an emergency.

As an instructor you MUST be able to have an agreement with them that sometimes you will grab the wheel. Also, if someone panics you might also need to shift it into neutral or even turn off the ignition when it is safe to do that. Or if there is room on the floor to put your foot on the brake to stop suddenly if someone panics.

So, unless you are a very experienced driver with very fast reflexes who has nerves of steel you really should not be teaching anyone to drive. This is a given.