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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:
BertieBotts · 27/11/2009 13:30

I agree that the cost of learning to drive is now ridiculous. However I don't think it should be taught in schools, I think the problem that non-drivers are disadvantaged lies in the way that driving has been made into this "essential life skill" - it shouldn't be essential. We should improve public transport (and make it more affordable) and then fewer people would need to drive in the first place, meaning it wouldn't be such a disadvantage not to drive.

I am a non driver and I never "expect" lifts from people. If they are offered I am grateful but I am happy to take a bus or train instead, travelling in cars makes me feel very nervous. I also have a little pot in which I keep some emergency money for a taxi in case I ever have to take DS to hospital in the middle of the night or something. I don't have to worry about being over the alcohol limit. It's much cheaper to buy a bus pass, and pay occasional train and taxi fares, than run a car, thinking about insurance, tax, maintenance and petrol, and not to mention the cost of buying one in the first place.

If I had more than one child though over the age that you have to pay for them on public transport I think a car would be much easier.

blondiep14 · 27/11/2009 13:44

I don't drive, or presume anybody that does will give me a lift anywhere.
DP does drive so does ferry me & DS about where he can/is needed.
My MIL is fabulous too about offering lifts but I don't expect them and will get around on my feet/public transport quite happily.
Until I became a SAHM I never really needed to drive as commuted via train to work and worked long hours.
I get quite offended by people so aghast I don't drive but can see how easy it would be to forget you have feet.
Luckily no-one i know is quite so anti non-drivers as some of the people here!
Being pregnant again has made me determined to finally sit my test so I can drive. Whether we can afford another car or not is a different matter!

nappyaddict · 27/11/2009 13:49

DS will either have to have driving lessons as a birthday/xmas present or pay for them by himself.

LIZS · 27/11/2009 14:00

It isn't as fundamental a life skill such as 3 r's and should n't have the same priority. It would be better environmentally if society became less reliant on cars. It also costs money to learn to drive and run a car. Time might be better spent on positive life skills - social and work ethics, practical training and job seeking advice, budgetting, cooking from basic ingredients and the realities of running up debt. These in turn can create opportunities and confidence and enable choices such as being able to learn to drive.

GrimmaTheNome · 27/11/2009 14:03

Perhaps though, there should be a vocational qualification in driving skills. This should be mandatory for anyone who wants to drive a White Van. Discourtesy, tailgating etc would result in immediate kicking off the course.

BertieBotts · 27/11/2009 14:07

Grimma there is - you need a licence to drive, to get that you have to pass a test, so it is a qualification of sorts - it doesn't stop people doing these things though you would fail a driving test for them!

Miggsie · 27/11/2009 14:07

No, the last thing we need is more people driving.

DD and I walk 1 mile to her drama lesson, you'd think we'd pole vaulted the Thames with the amazed look on the mum's faces..."you WALKED?!"

They should teach walking.
Oh, and washing and ironing clothes. Way more useful.

SerenityNowAKABleh · 27/11/2009 14:08

YABU. I was forced by my parents to learn to drive. It was SUPER expensive (they made me pay not that I'm bitter or anything or planning on demanding a refund) and, in the 9 years that I have had a license, only driven for 6 weeks of it. I agree with the posters who say the money would be better spent improving public transport.

nappyaddict · 27/11/2009 14:16

I think it would be a good idea but it should be optional. It would be a waste of money if they have no intention of actually getting a car and driving it.

GrimmaTheNome · 27/11/2009 15:05

The vocational course might include the normal driving test for anyone who hadn't already passed it - but the point would be to turn out people who could drive white vans properly. Yes, I know, impossible dream....

Janos · 27/11/2009 16:54

YABU, learning to drive is a choice, not a life skill.

It's very useful certainly but hardly essential. I don't drive, am on my own with DS and can get about perfectly well.

Anyway, if you need to get somewhere that's accessible only by car, there's always taxis.

Janos · 27/11/2009 16:57

I also don't understand people who are offended and/or horrified by people who don't drive. Strikes me as a waste of energy.

What's the big deal?

Goblinchild · 27/11/2009 18:03

I agree with Riven, no one should be allowed to drive until they are 25.
You'd be a more responsible and grown-up person by that time, less likely to kill yourself or others.
More aware of the privilege that driving is.
Had a huge amount of exercise and experience of public transport and might have instigated/campaigned for some changes and improvements.
Caused less environmental damage...
I'm wearing my flameproof knickers,
Bring It On.

ellokitty · 27/11/2009 21:38

At my college, Pre driving is taught. It is an extra curricular activity so, no going out of lessons. Mostly it is driving theory, but also lessons on safety, hazards etc. At the end of the course, the students do get to have one lesson. And, as it is on private property they do not have to be 17 either.

And its not a new thing either - they were offering it when I was a student there over 15 years ago!

pigletmania · 27/11/2009 22:50

YABU what the hell is wrong with not driving eh! Its not only about passing a test, you have the expense of running a car, tax, MOT, insurance, breakdowns etc, I am lucky because i have not got that responsibility being a non driver. Gosh op you make not being able to drive sound like a bad thing and that people who dont drive are very unfortuate. What if you cant pass your test, some people never do because they either dont have the confidence or skills to. Not driving is actually liberating imo, and walking to placed provides really good exercise! I know one mum who lives opposite me, and the school is at the end of our short road, if its raining or weather is bad she drives her dc to school , thats a 4 sec drive from her house to the school.

pigletmania · 27/11/2009 22:58

Oh usualsuspects i would love to drive but have not passed my test yet, and cannot afford to take lessons at the extortionate prices they charge, i would like to in the future, but i find your post a bit offensive, you obviously have freeloading friends, i would never dream of that, I would get a taxi or if OFFERED a lift by my friends i would gladly pay petrol money.

Kaloki · 27/11/2009 23:06

"I agree with Riven, no one should be allowed to drive until they are 25"

I wouldn't go that far, I passed my test at 20 and it gave me freedom and taught me about managing money. Also I lived in a town with godawful public transport, so was very glad not to have to rely on my parents so much.

nappyaddict · 28/11/2009 03:47

I think they should raise the age to 19, I think 25 is a bit extreme!!

CertainAge · 28/11/2009 06:15

Looking at the premise of the OP's post - which is to get a driving license even if you have no car.

I don't think it is valuable for a young person to learn to drive and get a license unless they have access to a car afterwards.

I know too many people who learnt to drive a 17, and then promptly went off to university for several years never setting foot behind the wheel. When they graduated and in work and able to afford a car, they could no more drive then than shortly after their 17th birthdays.

You don't really learn to drive until after you pass your test. Let them learn when they can afford it for themselves. It is not a priority for the taxpayer to fund.

mrsbean78 · 28/11/2009 07:03

It's pretty unfair to say that all non-drivers have never 'bothered' to learn how to drive.

I'm a non-driver. I wish I wasn't, but I am. It has been the greatest pain ever in my life. I work in a job where I am required to move about several times a day so I spend a fortune on taxi's and my daily public transport commute is 3 hours (1.5 each way) to a destination ten miles from my house that would take 45 mins each way.

I have had lessons. And lessons. And lessons. I'm not very good at driving! I wonder if this was because I started late because, like others, I lived in a major capital city where driving was neither affordable nor feasible enough to make it a serious option. Earlier in my life, my parents could not afford to insure me in a car and I certainly wouldn't have managed on my part-time chip shop wage. There are a number of people in my workplace in the same situation - we have, between us, amassed hundreds of hours of driving tuition and taken countless tests, and yet we cannot drive.

I will never get promoted while I can't drive.. and yet there seems to be nothing I can do about it other than carry on throwing money at it until one day I pass?

It is a life skill, sorry. I wish I'd had the opportunity to learn at school.

UnquietDad · 29/11/2009 12:16

I think it's only seen as a life skill because society has spun it as "essential". It most certainly is not.

I can't envisage a society in which nobody needs to read, write or add up. Can you? Or if I can, it would be a dystopia in which I could not want to live. These are true life skills. They add to general understanding and to the education of the people. They empower people.

On the other hand, I can very easily imagine a society in a hundred years' time or so where nobody needs, any longer, to strap themselves into a small missile dependent upon fossil fuels to get places. A society with clean, solar/electric powered public transport, which people actually want to use because it is more pleasant than driving. It would be a utopia.

And the question you always have to ask when saying "I want X to be taught in schools" is - at the expense of what? The curriculum is rammed as it is.

UnquietDad · 29/11/2009 12:18

The other question (hence separate post) is the way in which driving is taught.

It seems astonishingly backward that, in an educational climate moving away from exam pressure and towards continuous assessment, drivers are still passed or failed on the basis of one 40-minute exam.

I have heated arguments about this with my brother, who is a driving examiner. No wonder there are so many boy-racers out there who have a licence but no ability to drive safely. Similarly, there are people who'd be good drivers but find the exam too pressured - people who don't respond well to exams but are good learners. A continuous, competence-based assessment over a period of 20 weeks would be far more indicative of a learner's true ability.

Fibilou · 29/11/2009 12:30

Bearing in mind that a huge percentage of children leave school unable to read or write competently let alone do basic maths YABU.
Let's just scrap the education shall we and just make school a "life skills" course of sex education, PSHE and driving.

MitchyInge · 29/11/2009 12:52

driving is an important skill for some people, I hate the idea of my daughters being dependent on other people (particularly young men) for lifts to and from various places - it's just a fact that taxis are prohibitively expensive and public transport very limited in rural areas, even in reasonably sized towns and villages

JaneiteMightBite · 29/11/2009 12:59

YABVVVVVVU - in fact, more unreasonable than most AIBU posts - and that's saying something. Teachers have enough to bloody do without worrying about getting sufficient numbers of 17 year olds ready to go out racing the roads the minute they leave school. Or being failed by OFSTED for having too few passing their test by the age of 7, or other such ridiculousness that would be an inevitable follow-up to a suggestion like the OP's.

I don't drive. Guess what? I don't want to. I care about the environment and think I should therefore support public transport - nothing to do with 'can't be bothered' and I don't feel hampered.

Stupid idea.