ralper

My oldest son, Andrew, turned 16 on April 3. Yesterday he completed the necessary 6 hour driving course and got his permit. Tonight, after dinner, I took Andrew out for a lesson.

Andrew is a typical teenager. He is blase about most everything and shows little emotion or excitement. And so it was with my invite to drive. I said, "Come on Andrew, lets go for a drive." To which he answered, "Well, ok, where are we going and how long." On the surface I couldn't believe this, I couldn't imagine a kid not being excited about driving. I did realize that he really was very excited only being a typical teenager its hard for him to show excitement.

Anyway, we piled into my 4Runner and off we went. He did fine for his first time although he was quite nervous. He thought it would be easier than it was. He expected to be driving like a pro after a few minutes.

I was thrilled by all of this. My little boy is finally growing up and thats pretty exciting. It also brought back memories. I've been driving 36 years and I hadn't thought about my own lessons for a long, long time. Tonight I saw myself 36 years ago.

Anyway, we have a long way to go. His road test is scheduled for April 5, 2005 and I have until then to make sure that he really knows how to drive. I am hopeful that by time his roadtest comes he will be so practiced and so proficient at driving that E.W.A. and I will be able to sleep when he has the car. Once he gets his license I intend to send him to a high performance driving school. Not to be a racer, but to learn to handle the car is all situations.

Teaching Andrew to drive is really lots of fun. Have you ever taught anyone?

Legal Bill

Couple of exgirl-friends (yeah, that's why they're exes)
My son (yeah, he ran away from home for half a year)

(in the voice of Rainman) Yeah, I'm an excellent driver.

Kyras

Rob,
I'm in the same boat as you, with my son, Kyle. I guess they do things differently in CA. (No $hit!) This is the order of things here: (1) You have to be 15 1/2 years-old, (2) Have had the classroom driver's education (certificated), (3) Have enrolled in a 6-hour driver's behind the wheel course, (4) Then take the test for the permit, (5) After you pass the permit test, (6) You must take 2 hours of the behind the wheel driver's lesson. After all that, then your kid gets to drive with you.

My son got his permit about 2 months ago. (His birthday is 8-8-88.) After 6 months he can take the driving test for his license. He is supposed to have driven 40 or 60 (?) hours with parent by then. I let him drive home from school, in my van, after I get off the freeway. He's driven with me about 6 times. He's getting better everytime. It's fun. He was like your son. At first I think he was amazed that it's not as easy as he figured it'd be. I just love him to pieces and like to be with him.

RedY2KS2k

I saw you drive at the Fall Colors autocross. :-) If youre willing to teach someone else to drive, I will endeavor to forget my 37 years of bad habits and learn to drive the LB way. Forget Mike; I want to be like Bill.

Actually, I've taught a few people how to do several different things over the course of my life. I've been pretty successful at everything but driving instruction. I've always failed miserably at that one...

PWRMKR

I

PokS2k

I helped teach both my son and daughter. I would teach them how to use a clutch and my wife would do most of the road teaching. I am a terrible passenger (you know the kind, left foot hitting the imaginary clutch to brake).

I was better off teaching the clutch since I would do that in an empty lot, teaching them stop and go as well as hills.

Best of Luck Rob.

valentine

My 19 yr old has been driving for quite some time now and has my old 2000 mustang (her graduation gift) -- anyway, we decided she should learn to drive the S Car -- she'd never driven a straight before, so -- for over a year now we've had imprinted in my driveway two perfect S02 tread patterns about one foot in length -- she took off (or attempted to take off) leaving plumes of smoking rubber. She's now learned how to do it better, but she'd just as soon not drive the S ( ). I figure those tire imprints to be about 500 to 1000 miles of treadwear.

Kyras

I forgot that my daughter, now 17, also got taught my mom here. She was scary at first. She would look at a car coming and turn left in front of it. Never real close but enough to make me think my High Honors girl at school, was missing a few screws. She is very careful now.

I won't be letting my kids drive the S2000. It helps that they don't know sticks but I wouldn't let them learn on my baby.

jmc1971

Here in the great state of SC, at 15 you can get a special license that will allow you to drive alone during the day. Naturally I thought this a fantastic law when I was 15. Now I can't believe we turn 15 year olds loose on the roads.

I've taught a couple of people how to drive the same way I learned--in an empty church parking lot. It was huge and there was nothing to hit. There were lines to practice parking, turning, etc. All experiences were trauma free.

I learned how to drive a stick by facing the car down a slight incline. (Another church parking lot!) Depress the clutch, let the car roll forward down the incline, slowly release the clutch, and you can tell where it engages without it stalling. Makes learning the "footwork" so much easier. No fear of having it buck around on you.

Kyras

Parking lots are great for learning. My husband and I both learned in LA Valley College's parking lot. When it came time here in Acton, we realized we have no big parking lots. The closest one is about 15 miles away at a mall.

The good and the bad of country living, all in one.