Getting in to 3rd gear after 10 lessons

After finishing a 4hr session of an intensive course yesterday, I checked my phone and saw that a Mother had called me about lessons for her daughter, so I returned the call, and she explained about her concerns.

She told me that her daughter had taken 10 x 1hr lessons with a local driving instructor when she turned 17, but after 10 lessons the instructor was still doing the driving to/from home, and her daughter was not getting out of 2^nd gear.  A year on, her concern was that her daughter is getting older but still not driving.

Now I find that interesting, as I said to this Mother, the chap who started the intensive course yesterday morning drove home after 4 hrs on Day 1.  But, we are all different, some learn quicker than others.  However, the Mother started opening up the discussion a little bit.  She started to say that the driving instructor had tried to persuade her daughter to have 2 hr driving sessions, not 1 hr, and as such, she suspected he kind of resented that they didn’t take his advice.  On 3 seperate occasions she made a direct comparison to when she learnt to drive, that she only did 1 hr sessions and although she couldn’t put a number on it, it didn’t take her long to learn to drive.  So I confirmed that was the same for me 20 + yrs ago, but I directed her to the DSA website where they have loads of information about such things, and I said that the DSA recommended number of hours of training was near on 70...... see here.....

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/LearnerAndNewDrivers/LearningToDriveOrRide/DG_4022483

...... and I went on to say that when I had recorded how long it took me to get absolute beginners to test standard on average, I discovered mine was just over 30.  But one must be careful of such facts, because people learn at different rates, some people can practise with friends/family between lessons.... others can’t – there are many factors that determine how effective a driving session is. 

The discussion then turned to the strategy of how her daughter was learning to drive.  I asked the questions of where they live, and where her daughter was planning to take the test, the answer I got back was....... “I don’t know, she’ll take it where ever you think really”.

Now that’s an interesting answer, because that tells me that the onus of ‘making this work’ is solely on the instructor.  As it turns out they live about 15 mins from Peterborough, so if she wanted to take the test in Peterborough and if she wanted to train in Peterborough, then half an hour out of a 1 hour session is being used travelling to where the training is taking place.  The Mother was very sensitive about the way this was going, and started getting rather defensive about 1 hour was all she could afford for her daughter, and was all she needed when she learnt to drive.  When I raised the point that a block booking of 2 hr sessions is cheaper than a block booking of 1 hr sessions, and yet is more effective, because there are less journeys to/from the training site – the Mother reiterated that she realised ‘all of you instructors want everyone to take 2 hr lessons these days’.

So I took a few minutes to explain that from my point of view, I will fit into the needs of my customer. ... rather than my customer fitting into my schedule.  I said that ultimately what is important is finding a strategy that was going to enable her daughter to learn to drive.  The idea that the previous driving instructor was deliberately holding back his customer so as to make more money out of them is a non-starter because all the customer will do is go elsewhere – so from a business point of view, that suggestion is I would say, not representing reality.  I got the very real impression that the Mother was looking on me to take this problem away, just like with a magic wand – “this is my problem, listen to how horrible this previous instructor was, what are you now going to do to make this problem go away for me and my blessed daughter –all she wants to do is pass the test”.     

How do you go forward from here?  First, you have to have a goal eg pass by September.  Then you have to break that goal down.  Pass Theory Test by mid-July, and Practical Test by September.  Then you need to research, research how long the DSA think it will take to train, how long friends say it took them.  You need to consider your budget and your time constraints for lessons.  In other words, check that the goal you've set yourself is realistic and achievable.  You need to understand the relationship between short-circuiting the training period/quality of training, with the increased possibility of failing the test, which costs £62 a time.  


As this Mother said to me yesterday, she was very concerned about her Daughter passing her Theory Test, and wanted assurance that I would be training her for the Theory too.  She had heard of friends of her daughter taking 3-4 attempts to pass the Theory Test, and didn’t want her daughter to waste that money too.  Well some people properly train to pass tests, and some people short circuit training, and end up failing tests to still learn.  But do you see how this conversation is going?  Rather than seeing what study material is needed, and planning in study time to learn the theory, what Mother is doing is putting the responsibility of learning the theory over to the instructor.  As it happens, I am big into applying the theory knowledge, so there would be constant reference to the theory, but if people want to use me just to learn the theory, then that can be done 1:1 for £10/hr (only 1 person has used me for this, and he had Learning Difficulties).  More than that though, I explained I do provide reference material free of charge for my Learners, and the vast majority pass first time after some focussed and dedicated study.

I emailed some suggested days later in the day to Mother, and as it transpired, all she was actually after was booking up the 2 hr session for £20 - so it was all a non-starter.  But it’s interesting if you stand back and consider the attitude here.  I believe it is similar to what is happening in schools all across the UK – the responsibility for learning is being placed firmly with the school – there is no (or very little) willingness to consider an effective strategy to maximise learning.  Rather than the responsibility for learning being with the student, instead it’s with the school/teachers, therefore, if the end result falls below expectations, then it’s nothing to do with the student and purely the fault of the establishment.

The idea is crazy that this previous instructor is thinking to himself, ‘because she wont take 2 hr sessions, I’ll only let the daughter stay in 2^nd gear for all the 10 1 hr lessons, and then that way, they’ll come round to my way of thinking’ – it is clearly a nonsense.

I have never been one for forcing my Learners to take lessons – if they haven’t got the motivation to learn to drive, then they wont learn to drive.  Mixing up the perceived responsibility of a school to ensure a son/daughter passes exams, with the responsibility of a driving instructor to ensure a son/daughter passes the driving test is not good.  My approach is that if you come to me and tell me what the desire is, when you want to pass, how much time a week you have and the budget you have, then together we can formulate a strategy.  If the strategy is to bung £10/hr to a driving instructor in the hope that after a very short period (just like the old days), the test pass will soon be coming then I think it may be a while before that daughter is driving.