Useful Learning

In very general terms we all learn new skills to add value to our lives.  Not necessarily monetary value, it can be social value, but normally there is some tangible kind of gain; independence, cultural, academic, practical, emotional pleasure.   In other words, there is normally a ‘point’ to learning.  It seems to me that this is where much of our current education system is letting down our youngsters.  I recall a young lass who was learning to drive with me, who was clearly heart-broken to tell me that after working hard to obtain a good degree qualification, she was only able to get a job as a Sales Assistant in a large retail outlet very loosely connected to the subject of her degree.  To this day I can recall the sound of disappointment, resentment, anger, despair in her voice as she described to me the financial consequences of investing in the degree that she was then not able to repay due to her low income.  As a young adult, I imagine that must be some shock of the ‘real world’.  I’m guessing that some young adults will have the mental resources and perhaps family to pull on in order to see them through that harsh reality.  For others, to see all that hard work, financial investment and the resulting loss of opportunity, it may well prove too much to cope with.

What we teach in our schools and how we teach needs re-thinking in my view.  The driving education industry is in no better shape.  Look at the results.  We have youngsters coming out of their training who are prone to having accidents (1 in 5 according to the DSA), and the insurance premiums reflect that situation.  We will very soon be denying our youngsters of the opportunity to obtain the benefits that being able to drive provide.  In effect, we are robbing them of hope, ambition, independence.  My profession enables me to interface with these youngsters on a daily basis, and my observation is that this situation does not bode well.  It seems to me to be a very basic need that people need to feel valued, they need to experience reward for effort, they need to have ambition, and witness that when you take a certain course of actions, there is a ‘point’ to it. 

About 15 years ago, I was working for an electronics company and I was involved in reviewing the quality and efficiency of the manufacturing processes in a factory of about 400 people.  In an attempt to provide an environment where people were genuinely motivated to consider how they went about their daily work, I was involved in providing training sessions to raise the awareness of the need and rewards for being prepared to think differently.  Not easy I can tell you.  There is always much resistance to change, and as you might expect, there were pockets of success where a group of people embraced the concept and ran with it.  When I witnessed the results of this attitude, it was staggering.  For sure the measures relating to quality and efficiency improved, but more than that, people smiled, people enjoyed their work, and there were clear signs that people genuinely cared for each other in their workplace.  Although I’m not involved in the education system, it seems to me that there is a need to expose our younger generation with some of this ideology.  They need to be equipped with some useful tools and techniques that are going to be meaningful to them; not an A* in maths, but discovering a sport they can play for the rest of their life, or learning how to interact with others, or understanding the benefits to be had of playing music, constructing practical objects, fixing things.  I recently tried to make some kind of connection with a new customer of mine, and could not discover any hobbies, sports, interests whatsoever worthy of talking about.  There was no inclination to speak about College, family members, job prospects.  When I asked what he was doing for the rest of the week-end the reply was “sitting down”.

 Academic qualifications will always have their use in certain situations, but generally our young people need to be equipped to add value to their community that requires so much more than an A* can ever provide. 

I believe how we teach our youngsters to drive deserves as much attention, as does how we teach our driving instructors.    It’s not just how to drive in the physical sense that I’m referring to, it’s how they drive in terms of their attitude to driving.  Two quick examples:

1.        Recently a 17 yr old female kept on stalling the car.  There was no connection in her head of the job of the clutch pedal.  Why should there be?  She has no mechanical background to draw on, she has no engineering experience, she has never given a thought of how a car works.  I made efforts that I think any reasonable driving instructor would make to find that connection.  I attempted by drawing diagrams, showing professional graphics, referring to illustrations in books, watching other road users pull up to emerges, listening to the engine and feeling the effects of different clutch positions.  We messed around with practical drills that were focussed on the clutch when there was nothing else to distract her....no road users, no pedestrians just big empty spaces.  The moment of connection came when I mentioned a very simple analogy with riding a bike.  Now the funny thing is that she had previously told me she did not ride bikes, she had some experience when she was very young, but she had not ridden a bike as a teenager.  And the even funnier thing is that the analogy with the bike that I gave, whilst not being technically the same (as bikes don’t have clutches), the connecting theme was strong enough for it to have instant meaning to her.  Literally, from that moment on, there were no stalls.  Despite the analogy not being technical, it connected with her, it ‘joined some dots’ in her head.  So tenuous was the analogy that I'd never given that to any other learner before, and yet it has proven so successful on this occasion.... this was a big learning point for me personally.  Now I very much doubt that for the rest of her life, she will ever need to describe to anyone even the basic concept of how a clutch in a car works, but I tell you what, she wont be stalling when she comes to emerges for the rest of her life.  The training is meaningful.  A different approach that I see in training learners and sadly, also training driving instructors, is forcing her to dip the clutch at a certain time on the approach to the junction by repeated verbal command until she eventually 'gets it'.  She of course, 'gets' nothing, all that has been achieved, is she has been ‘conditioned’ to do a certain action.  Very sad.  And this approach leads me on to the second example.

2.       You can be technically good in any given field, but it doesn’t necessarily make you any good does it?   A Learner may technically be good, they pass their test comfortably, but what happens next may be very different.  Their attitude to driving can very rapidly undo all the good skills of driving that have been achieved.  About 6 yrs ago, I was leaning into my car in the early morning, before work, when a car drove passed jamming the door against my legs.  A few days later, I found the car, knocked on the door and discovered the driver had been an elderly lady going for her routine hospital appointment, she said she couldn’t see through her windscreen because it had been misted up.  So although she had instant recall of the incident and the cause, she clearly had decided at the time not to stop at the scene of an accident, and not even to report it.  I received no apology from her, and despite my request, she did not contact the Police to make any admission, and since that day I have suffered with a sore neck.   It’s a little bit like the vast majority of the staff at the electronics factory and their attitude to change.  All they want is to go to work, see the clock out, go home and get paid.  What happens in between is of little consequence to them.  All that elderly lady wanted to do was drive to the hospital, get her new blood and drive back.  What happens in between is of little regard to her.  The missing link is the attitude.  I’m sure she didn’t wake up that morning thinking “Today, I don’t care if I run a guy over and give him neck pain for the rest of his life”, but the fact is, she did, and she did not even see the need to stop. 

Tapping in to the deeper mental resource of us all to nourish the ‘attitude’ is a big challenge.  There seems to be very little recognition for the need to by the public.  As such, unless the financing of driving training becomes centralised, then it seems unlikely that the public will be willing to pay for such training.  Personally, I do make time for it, but I wonder what percentage of training providers do?   

Until the training that is provided is ‘fit for purpose’ then you have to wonder where this is leading.  I’ve discussed at length with fellow driving trainers this subject and although many disagree, my opinion is that the error lies in the testing.  If the testing standard bore more resemblance to the reality then it would force up the standard of the required training.  But I guess that’s perhaps a topic for another day.