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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Driving should be taught in schools

82 replies

Bathsheba · 26/11/2009 13:25

Is it just me or is there an increasing/significant number of posts in AIBU where "I can't drive" is either brought up at the beginning or added "by stealth" later on in the posting.

I think in a modern world, driving is SUCH an important life skill and SO required for life that it should be formally taught in schools so that, in time no-one would be able "not" to drive...if however they chose to, or used their money differently that would clearly be their choice rather than being hampered by an inability to do it...

OP posts:
TheUsefulSuspect · 26/11/2009 15:19

I have very little time for non-drivers.

They have never bothered to learn but seem to think they have a divine right to a lift from me as I drive.

I have even had non-driving friends flounce when I have declined to give them a lift home from MY HOUSE after I have had them over for a meal etc.

So you expect me to leave my house at 11-Midnight to take you home so you can save a fiver on a taxi.

Dream on.

UnquietDad · 26/11/2009 15:22

It's not a "life skill" and does not need to be taught in schools. This conversation has come up before.

UnquietDad · 26/11/2009 15:23

And what should be taken out of the curriculum to make room for all these driving lessons?

teameric · 26/11/2009 15:32

YABU it's not exactly a required life skill is it? it's handy to be able to drive but hardly essential. And no I don't drive, DH does and is always going on about me getting lessons, pisses me off.

TheUsefulSuspect · 26/11/2009 15:37

teameric just out of interest, do you often travel in your DHs car?

If you do don't you think it would be worth learning?

Think of the impact it would have on you if he was banned or incapacitated

bibbitybobbityhat · 26/11/2009 15:40

Yabu.

(no one else seems to have realised this is an AIBU)

Kaloki · 26/11/2009 15:42

"They have never bothered to learn but seem to think they have a divine right to a lift from me as I drive."

I discovered I had a lot more friends as soon as I passed my test, less so when I got rid of the car

teameric · 26/11/2009 15:42

I do TheUsefulSuspect but only at weekends, during the week when he's at work I use public transport or walk

bogie · 26/11/2009 15:45

I think it would be a great idea.
Also we couldn't take cookery in school (I wanted to be a chef) because it wasn't in high demand?, Childcare and managing finances should be taught alot more in schools.
I think alot of people in schools leave with very few real life skills.

teamiric - Surly more people need to learn how to drive than need to study algabra for 5 years.

KurriKurri · 26/11/2009 15:52

Driving is not a life skill, learning how to use public transport and stop polluting the environment arguably is.

Money might be better spent on improving public transport, I'm not convinced we need more 17 year old drivers.

Might also sort some of the country's health problems if people walked and cycled more.

Usualsuspects, I never expect lifts from drivers or ask for them, in fact sometimes have to be quite insistent that I would rather walk, with drivers to whom a couple of miles has become a distant only possible on wheels.

Having replied on your other thread I realise I obviously fall into several of the categories of people who you have very little time for. Oh well

hocuspontas · 26/11/2009 15:58

It costs £1000 to insure ONE young learner driver on a parent's insurance imagine the cost of 200 sixth formers.

Imagine the timetabling as well. Eeek!

teameric · 26/11/2009 16:01

bogie you have a point there, algabra is pretty bloody pointless .
And I don't think I have a divine right to get lifts off people, as I have no problem getting on public transport to go and visit friends admit it would be easier for me to drive, think I'm too scared tbh.

sarah293 · 26/11/2009 16:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

wannaBe · 26/11/2009 16:05

it's not a life skill.

I don't drive and I haven't been hampered by it.

Imo people should be taught not to be such bloody snobs and that public transport really isn't going to kill them.

But on a more serious note they should imo be taught about money management and how to cook.

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 26/11/2009 16:07

No, I don't think it should be taught in schools. I don't think 17 year olds should be driving anyway, you shouldn't be able to get a licence until you are 18 imo.
Driving is environmentally disastrous and as other posters have said we should be encouraging fewer people to drive not more.
Now lessons in how to read a bus timetable might be useful...

sarah293 · 26/11/2009 16:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

brimfull · 26/11/2009 18:38

when I did drivers ed in canada it was an extra curricular subject and taught after school

TeddyBare · 26/11/2009 19:09

YABU Driving is a luxury not an essential skill.

piscesmoon · 26/11/2009 19:17

Schools have enough to do! It would be better to have less people driving-and certainly less 17yr olds driving.

ImSoNotTelling · 26/11/2009 19:53

YABtotallyU

Pollution
We should be encouraging move to public transport and away from cars
Vast expense
Is it even sensible? Car crashes are one of main causes of death of young men I think. Should we be encouraging even more young people to get behind the wheel?
Imagine what London will be like if every single sixth former is out on the roads learning to drive horrendous

Give them free public transport instead.

rimmer08 · 26/11/2009 20:24

ooh goody! yet another thing people think teachers should be doing! have a biscuit

LoubyLoubyLouLa · 26/11/2009 20:36

I was a teacher and when teaching PSHE (Personal and Social Education) we did do the theory driving part of driving for the 6th form and sometimes Y11.

However I have to disagree with the fact that driving is a life skill. Why is it assumed that everyone can and should drive? It is a skill like dancing, some people can, some people can't, some people can learn some people can't. Some people enjoy it some people don't...

I personally think (and now runs for cover) that if you fail 3 or 4 times, give up. You are just not meant to drive and to be quite honest if it takes you this long to pass when you finally fluke-ily do you are probably a danger on the roads!

muminthemiddle · 26/11/2009 23:19

No.

I think there should be less drivers on the road, seriously.

The number of crap drivers who seem cluless astounds me everyday.

Awareness and anticipation of every situation I was taught. Fine drivers who cannot drive and leave the roads safer and free for decent drivers and pedestrians.

Annner · 27/11/2009 12:48

YAB vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv U

Driving is not a life skill, and nor is it essential.

OP, plenty of us out here don't drive and don't feel disadvantaged. And nor do we as a body rudely make any assumptions about having a right to a lift anywhere.

School is for academic work; you are only there from 9-3, and there are enough extras in the crammed timetable as it is. Life skills and unnecessary fluff like driving should be learned out of school in the family or wider community. Most of the planet doesn't drive, ffs.

I refused to learn to drive at 17 because I wanted to challenge the ridiculous paradigm that sees learning to drive at 17 as a logical and necessary follow-on from learning to walk at 1.

My dream is that by the time my children grow up the two car household will be as rare as it was when I was growing up in the seventies, and that they do not see driving as vital.

Smithagain · 27/11/2009 13:08

Um - neither of my children will be 17 until they are in their very final year of school (summer birthdays). They won't turn 18 till after they leave.

I would not wish them to spend school time on driving lessons, in their final year, when they need to be working on their final school qualifications. And they may not have the maturity to handle it, anyway.

Daft idea.