Teaching the whole person

When you want something so bad that it starts to affect your logical thinking, then someone needs to step in and put you straight.  True?

It's great our pupils are shooting for the stars, good luck to them; but we should help them to keep it real.  A Joe Rogan interview with a very successful musical artist and movie producer Rob Zombie is well worth listening to if you have the time.  That is one 'grounded' person.

Zombie is pulling on his experiences of life; pupils learning to drive may be pretty short on that at 17 or 18 years of age.  They may struggle to appreciate the process or journey that they will go through.  It won't help them if they are either still in academic education or fresh out of it.  The sixth form at schools and universities are in a bind whereby they are competing for student applications, and there is increasing evidence that it is impacting the quality of education they provide.  The challenge that creates for driving instructors is that some pupils will enter the process of learning to drive, with a distorted understanding of what it means to learn a practical skill.  These pupils are very used to an institution which is geared entirely on exam grades (by whatever means), instead of a meaningful education.  

I find myself having conversations with pupils about the process of learning to drive where it becomes clear, very quickly, that my pupil does not have the faintest idea of what it means to learn by tapping into the long-term memory.  Many are not used to that concept.  An analogy I would suggest is that academic institutions are conditioning them to eat out at fast-food restaurants for instant gratification.   The details of fine dining, savouring good food, social etiquette at the table, are not being developed.  They are too busy looking at phones while scoffing junk food rather than benefitting from the social skills of good company with friends.

Why does this matter to us as driving instructors?  It flies in the face of the DVSA objectives of 'safe driving for life'.  It ignores the importance of developed habitual driving skills by repeated and sustained practice.  It also turns its back on the notion of continued learning post-test.  So we have our governing body who have objectives entirely at odds with those of our customers.  That is why this matters.

You would be able to spot the fast-food eater who dines for a 4-course meal if you paid attention to the level of interaction with other diners, the quality of conversation, where the mobile phone is located, how quickly each course is consumed etc.  But this blog is not about how the DVSA choose to assess learner drivers.

I have walked through the process of learning to drive with some pupils, basing my narrative on DVSA researched statistics, only to discover that what I am saying is either not believed, or just not understood.  I've used graphs, practical analogies, comparisons to academic learning but so strong are the forces within, that the message simply does not get through.  These forces can come from the accounts given to pupils by parents and peers.  We should never under-estimate the power of these influences.  

Clearly, what doesn't help is when unscrupulous instructors 'coach' pupils to display certain behaviours on test, knowing full well that the pupil does not possess habitual skills and techniques for safe driving. 

Here is a little teaser for you.  The next 5 pupils you see for driving training who are taking English Literature at school, ask them to tell you HONESTLY how many books they have read from cover to cover.  See what they say. Be ready for an honest: "none".

When you talk to your pupils about their attitudes to road safety, the conversation is not 'results' based because your role is not one of judgement.  Pupils will disclose thoughts on the law, learning to drive, and driving behaviours that you could never predict.  'Non scholae sed vitae (discimus)' - We do not learn for school but for life.  It may be a 2000-year-old quotation (from Seneca the Younger), but it holds to this day.  We can choose to educate our pupils beyond the scope of passing the driving test.  Not all conversations have to align with a measurable outcome.  If you want your pupils to think about driving behaviours, you will need talks that give them the freedom to express their inner thoughts.