Who or what would you choose to teach your Teen?
Q: Dear Mike: I’ve heard there’s online driver’s ed. in quite a few states. What do you think of that option?- Sandie of Green Bay WI
A: Dear Sandie: I just think it’s horrible. Although there are bad driving schools out there, I think even a bad driving school is still better than online driver’s ed. With a classroom situation you know that a teenager is really there for the required number of hours of instruction. But with an online curriculum, it seems to me that there is no accountability. The computer doesn’t know if somebody is just punching through those pages without reading any of them, or if they’re having someone else click through the curriculum for them. Depending on their age, kids who take online driver’s ed. are still required to have some professional behind-the-wheel time, but I still think they’re going to be at a real disadvantage. I spend a lot of time in class talking about different kinds of crashes and defensive driving options, so that when my students have their behind-the-wheel time, we can really focus on what’s happening around them while they’re driving. Without that kind of background from the classroom, I think a lot of behind-the-wheel time is going to get wasted on explaining the basics to students who’ve gotten their permit through online driver’s ed, and we’re all going to pay the price. I really believe the crash rates & severity rates for teenagers are going to go up as online drivers ed. becomes more common. -Mike Pehl
