Ooooo I knoooooow

Incandescent in rage this mother was.  

I got three messages in one day from a lady who I'd never met or spoken to before, nor had anything at all to do with her daughter's driving training.  She was desperate to tell me how this driving instructor had not given her daughter an iota of praise or credit; her daughter was done with him, and this lady was going to tell me, and everyone else she rang, all about it.

Thankfully at no time did she disclose who she was referring to.

The problem was that this awful instructor (apparently) had booked up a driving test for his pupil.  So Mum was now ringing around driving instructors (this was where I came in), telling them all her tale of woe, and wanting them to take her daughter to her pre-planned driving test.

"She can drive, she drives lovely."

"I was warned by my friends about this chap, but I thought, no, I will give him the benefit of the doubt..... what a mistake that was".

"She's had enough of him; she hates her driving lessons with him".

Do you remember Cybil on the phone in Fawlty Towers?  "Oooooo I knoooooow".  When mothers rage like this, how good it is to say "Oooooo I knoooooow".

A familiar tale that driving instructors across the UK will have heard many times is when the relationship between instructor and pupil deteriorates, BUT there is a driving test booked.  "Hmmm....... you do know that you can take your precious little one to do her test in your car?"  [Insert fingers in ears].

This issue is due to parents, and I'm sorry ladies, but it is nearly always mothers in my experience, who pre-book driving tests before the driving ability of the son/daughter warrants it.  If the taking of the test is such a 'guaranteed success' as they would have us believe, tell them to get their young one to take the test in their own car.

The problem is exacerbated by pupils and instructors attempting to predict learning progress 1, 2 or 3 months down the line.  Ironically, the "provisional" booking of a driving test in the diary will in itself, for some pupils, affect the rate of any future learning; why continue to put the required hardship of effort in when you think that regardless of competence you will still be going to test?

Why does this happen so often?  I rather suspect it will be a variety of reasons.  Parents can sometimes have a greater desire for their son/daughter to have a full drivers licence.  Perhaps there is a deep-seated loathing or perhaps distrust of driving instructors.  Maybe the Mum or Dad had a bad experience when they learnt to drive.  Maybe money is tight, and there is little finance for further driving training.  It could be that there is a perception that all driving instructors string their pupils along, fleecing them of their hard earned cash.  Parents may feel there is a need to be seen to be 'present' in the process to avoid the driving instructor from plodding along with no great urgency.  Perhaps the instructor is not clearly communicating progress or assessment to the pupil and/or parents.  It is possible that the manner in which the instructor is communicating driving ability is for some reason putting the assessment in doubt or causing resentment.