Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It looks like I'm in the minority. My driver's ed was done completely outside of school. I forget all of the details, but I think there were a dozen or so (maybe more) two-hour classes that you could complete in any order. Two different classes were offered each Monday-Friday night, one from 5-7 and another 7-9. They also offered Saturday classes that were something like 9-11 and 11-1. Every month the school came out with a schedule so you could plan when were going to attend. At the end of your last class you took a written test.
There was a driving requirement with the school's instructors. I forget how many times you had to go, but each time you drove around the area for an hour, between dropping off the student before you and picking up the one after you.
This was all in the Youngstown, OH area in 2006/07
The internal combustion engine hadn't yet been invented when I was in school .....
I didn't take driver ed in school, so really don't know how it worked. However, in my current district, the classroom portion of driver ed is a mandatory elective. (Yes, I recognize that's an oxymoron. ) Behind the wheel instruction is separate and must be paid for by the students. Parents can opt out of that and teach their kids themselves, but if they choose that option, there's a fairly high minimum number of behind the wheel hours that parents have to attest the kids have completed.
Ours was part of Health Ed, a one-semester elective, usually taught by the football coach. All practice driving was included. Our parents never had to pay for* nor teach us how to drive (what a difference compared to today!), although they did do the practice driving with us once we had a learner's permit. This was in the 1970s.
Even though mine was at school, it was not required by the school and it was not free. I can't remember what it cost to take it. It was so long ago I don't remember what those who didn't take it at school had to do in order to get a license.
I think, for my kids, if you didn't take drivers ed somewhere (either parent taught course or a driving school) you couldn't get your license until you were 18, or something like that. They learned to drive in different states, and I don't remember all the specifics, but one son did a couple of weeks of classroom work, then had to do so many hours of in car, part as an observer and part behind the wheel. It was scheduled daily for a couple of hours, until the requirements were met. Then it was up to the student to go to the drivers license office and do the state test. The younger son, who learned to drive in a different state, did all his classroom stuff at one time, then the driving school would schedule the in car part at your convenience. They would pick my son up at the house, spend a couple of hours driving and then drop him back off at home. He took it when he was 15, and saved the last couple of driving hours until he was 16 and ready to go take the test. Then he scheduled his last driving hours the day before he planned on going and getting his license (so he could brush up on everything). Then the driving school actually scheduled an appointment for him at the drivers license office, and took him to get it. He was able to use their small little car (Honda Civic) to take the driving test, rather than my big old Suburban.
I went to a private school that didn't offer Driver's Ed. I believe that it counted as an elective towards high school graduation for public schools in my state, though.
I actually learned from a NASCAR driver. His father is in the Hall of Fame and arguably one of the most successful drivers of all time. I passed my test on the first try, so I guess he knew what he was talking about.
I wonder if this has to do with our age groups too? I would guess that with lots of public schools making so many cuts (despite getting more and more of our money) that driver's ed may have been one of the first things to go in some places).
I was class of '87. We had Driver's Ed as a required course, for credit, and it was actually the "Health" class for 10th grade. I think we had something like First Aid/CPR for Health in 9th grade, Drugs & Alcohol in 11th grade, and Sex Ed in 12th grade.
The Driver's Ed class followed the NJ driver's manual and NJ traffic laws, and was just classroom learning, not behind-the-wheel. The final exam was the official NJ written test (which today is a computerized test). If we passed, we got our learner's permits from the State.
Then if we wanted to get behind-the-wheel training, we had to go to a private driving school. I think I had like 5 lessons, but mostly my Dad trained me.
In response to the OP's proposal for multiple automotive classes in high school, I think it's very ambitious, and maybe a bit excessive. Do I believe that in general all of us need to know how to change oil, replace a flat tire, and check our fluids? Yes. But I can't see using taxpayer money to teach that in public schools. That's what Dads, and Grandfathers and older cousins are for.
And while it might be nice to understand how an internal combustion engine works, having a class in that is not going to be useful to most of us who are not going into the automotive industry, or engineering. And I do remember getting a little bit of the workings of internal combustion engines in Physics anyway. Maybe in a voc/tech school it might be useful, but not for students like I was (honors/college prep). If the OP's idea, that people need to understand how to operate and repair a machine they use every day, were taken to an extreme, then we'd also have to have 4 year courses on the inner workings of computers, cell phones, microwaves, etc. There would be no room for language, history, math, science, literature, etc.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) Behind the wheel instruction is separate and must be paid for by the students. Parents can opt out of that and teach their kids themselves, but if they choose that option, there's a fairly high minimum number of behind the wheel hours that parents have to attest the kids have completed.
