DRIVER’S EDUCATION ROADMAP

Teens

As a teen preparing to get your license, you are right now in a very interesting time of your life. You are standing at the edge of your childhood looking out across the expanse of your teen years and all that you can see is a slight hint of adulthood. You are likely not sure exactly who you are right now, much less what you will be in the future. Believe me, I was a teen at one point and I can remember all of the uncertainties, high hopes and dreams, worries, wishes and wants. For some of you, getting your driver’s license may be your idea of the ticket to your freedom, to others of you it may mean new driving chores for Mom and Dad. For others of you this may be one of the first times that you have even given any serious thought to the prospect of driving.

As a driving instructor, I have met quite a variety of teens and I can say one thing for sure, you are all different. Whether you are raring to go and want your license yesterday or you aren’t even sure if you want it, I hope that I can help you. I hope that this site can in some way inspire you to be the best driver that you can be. In many ways being the best driver that you can be involves skills that must be learned, but in others it means a broader, more mature way of thinking than you may be used to. Most of your life up to this point has been spent learning and growing into the person that you are, but for the vast majority of you the moment you get behind the wheel will be the first time that you have had other people’s lives and futures in your hands. Most teens need to adjust their thinking as much, if not more than they need to adjust their skills. The actual skills that you need to drive a car aren’t that different from those needed to ride your bike, drive a lawnmower or to drive any sort of motorized vehicle, but the mindset needs to be very different.

Please take the time to read through some of the following pages for more insight into this important step in your life and please realize, that as a teen things are changing fast for you in your outside world as well as inside yourself, so be prepared for some challenges, but also know that you can overcome all of them with perseverance and a willingness to work at it. And above all, when you are out on the road driving, make sure that you are in your best state of mind, stay calm and concentrate.

Skillset

When most people think about driver’s education, they are considering the physical skills that are required to operate an automobile. That’s what it is all about, right? Well, you do need to acquire a certain level of skill to be able to make a vehicle travel down the road. At the most basic level you need to know how to turn a key, how to move a gear shift lever, how to turn a steering wheel and how to push a brake and accelerator pedal. You need to be able to do these things, but driver’s education is much more than that.

Mindset

As people progress through life, their mindset will change a bit depending on their circumstances, but mindset is not something that just happens to you. Mindset is something that you work at every day of your life whether you realize it or not. As a teen, your body and mind are going through some formative changes right now. You can have an effect on some of the changes in your body by watching what you eat, getting enough sleep and getting proper exercise, but for the most part the changes are out of your control. You can’t control many of the changes occurring in your mind either, but the one thing that you have full control over, even as a teen when oftentimes you feel like you don’t control much, is your mindset. Being able to control your mindset is one of the most powerful tools that you have and it will have a dramatic affect on the rest of your life. Your mindset toward driving and your mindset while driving are perhaps the most important part of your driver’s education training.

Choices

Life is all about choices. Even when we feel we are out of options, there a still many choices to be made. Driving is no different, the act of driving is comprised of many small choices. Many small choices that can add up to some really big consequences. As a teen, you may be accustomed to your choices having little to no consequences. You probably have learned which choices to make to keep Mom and Dad off of your back and you may have learned which choices to make in school if you want to get good grades and which choices you need to make to receive disciplinary actions. Oftentimes, teens are in the unique position of leaving the age of being a child behind and heading toward the age of adulthood, but not yet having many or any of the responsibilities of an adult. Now don’t get me wrong, there are many teens who are very responsible and many others who are not. Even so, teens typically aren’t responsible for making the big life decisions for themselves or for others, they typically aren’t responsible for deciding most of what is happening in their lives at any given moment. Even teens without much parental guidance typically live within a structure where most decisions are made for them. Well, this is not the case once you find yourself behind the wheel. Once you grab hold of that steering wheel, you are stepping into an entirely different world of choices.

FREE ROAD TEST TIPS!

"10 Essential Tips and Techniques to

Pass Your Road Test"