Classroom

Driver’s education classroom for the state of Wisconsin consists of 30 hours of training in the classroom.  The school must be licensed by the state of Wisconsin.  There can be a maximum number of 35 students in any one class.  The training must take place over a minimum of 3 weeks, with no more than 2 clock hours per day of training.  Any missed class hours must be made up.  Classes can be made up by attending the same lesson in a different class or by doing a comparable assignment.

The following subject matter must be covered in the classroom training:

• Responsibility
• Vehicle mechanical/control features
• Vehicle ownership responsibilities
• Environmental dynamics
• Pre-driving skills/maneuvers
• City driving
• Freeway driving
• Rural driving
• Hazards of farm animals and machinery
• Hazards of railroad crossings
• Psychophysical aspects (alcohol, mood, health, etc)
• Organ and tissue donation (30 min)
• Traffic citizenship and highway safety progress
• Awareness of motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians
• Move Over Law

The school may administer the signs and knowledge test in their classroom if they are part of the Cooperative Driver Testing Program.

Driver’s education school licenses and instructor licenses are renewed every 2 years and all driving schools undergo random DOT audits to ensure that they are following the rules.

The above listed requirements are set forth by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.  All Wisconsin driver’s education schools must follow these rules, so in that respect, they should all be similar.  But, as you probably know from your experiences with other companies, your satisfaction with any company that you work with will be largely dependent on the amount of effort the people who run the business are putting forth.

As in all companies, customer communication and customer service are very important.  It can be very frustrating to leave a message and not hear back from anyone for days.  It is also frustrating when a problem occurs and the people responsible aren’t willing to take the blame and make things right.  All companies exist to make money and everyone needs to make a living, but some companies seem to pay attention to their bottom line and nothing else.  In my opinion, the world would be a better place if people would simply treat each other as they would like to be treated.  Everyone makes mistakes, we should be able to work through our mistakes, take ownership for them and move on.  Every business owner needs to understand that you win some and you lose some, but your main focus needs to be on customer service or you won’t have many customers to serve.

The driver’s education business is different than many other businesses because it is our responsibility to educate your teens to become safe drivers.  We must stay up to date and with the times more than many other types of businesses simply because the laws change over time and our students also change over time.  A movie, graphic or style of teaching that was effective five or ten years ago may not even make sense to students in today’s classroom.  It’s important to keep the students engaged and interacting. Two hours is a long time for a teenager to sit in a classroom.  Schools need to make sure that they not only have up to date and interesting materials and training techniques, but they must also have systems in place to encourage discussion and class participation.  If a student just sits for too long without any interaction, their brains are closer to sleep than they are to learning.

In the end, choosing the appropriate classroom for your son or daughter is a very personal choice.  I would encourage you to call the school and talk to someone about their school and how they teach.   We can learn a lot about each other simply by talking.  Classroom vs Online? Click Here