Driving as a subject

Midnight_EG

After reading the recent thread about subjects in AH, and the subject of driving lessons in school came up, and it made me think.

Do you think it should be introduced as a subject, in a technical sense, and if you pass by the end of either 5th or 6th year, well then you get your full license? Assuming the proper testing could take place, I think it could work?

And if you happen to fail? Well then it doesn't matter, just now you have to pay for the test outside of school, your fault really :rolleyes:

Thoughts?

fryup

well not as a full time subject, but there's no harm in kids getting to learn the basics of driving and road safety

bad2dabone

its an interesting debate, I think it would improve the standard of driving vastly, and considering that you can earn a living from driving it would be useful for students too.

challengemaster

Considering all the cuts in education, it's unlikely that it would happen anyway. There's barely enough funding for a lot of extra-curricular activities anymore, nevermind introducing something which would require more staff to be hired, one/more car(s), insurance would be insane, and probably a lot of other costly things. If you introduce something where students have to pay something towards it, then that too causes problems. Quite a lot of households wouldn't pay for it or just wouldn't be able to afford it.

Also, You could have to hire up to 15-20 people depending on the size of the school. If you have 30 people per class, you can't only let 1 person do it per week, otherwise there's no way they'll have enough lessons/practice to pass. That and everyone else would be getting annoyed too. And there's only so many weeks per school year, with things already allocated to times. Adding something else may be taking away from an actual leaving cert subject. While learning to drive is nice, doing well in the LC is more important and you can still learn to drive outside school!

Then, you have the messers/eejits who are in every class/school. Would you REALLY even consider putting them into a car in the first place? I think thats just a recipe for disaster...

Nice thought, but I really don't think it's practical at all.

Gary ITR

Whatever happened to the traffic school in Clontarf?


Edit: Seems it's deserted now, shame really http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/the-traffic-school-in-clontarf-a-little-piece-of-history/

randylonghorn

challengemaster wrote: »

Nice thought, but I really don't think it's practical at all.

It happens all over the US ... seems to work there.

zilog_jones

AFAIK it's only an extra-curricular thing that some US high schools do

fonecrusher1

Midnight_EG wrote: »

After reading the recent thread about subjects in AH, and the subject of driving lessons in school came up, and it made me think.

Do you think it should be introduced as a subject, in a technical sense, and if you pass by the end of either 5th or 6th year, well then you get your full license? Assuming the proper testing could take place, I think it could work?

And if you happen to fail? Well then it doesn't matter, just now you have to pay for the test outside of school, your fault really :rolleyes:

Thoughts?

Yeah i think its a good idea but not in 6th year because it might distract students from the leaving cert.
But a few lessons during 4th or 5th year would be a good thing.
When you think about it, everyone has to learn to drive at some stage in their lives so the earlier you become familiar with driving a car the easier it will be to pass the dreaded driving test in the future.

daveharnett

Green government. Classes in how to take a bus are more likely.

I'm all for schools doing things like this as opt-in extra curriculars, but 17 year olds who are motivated to drive will do it for themselves anyway, and are more motivated when they/their parents are paying for it. No point in dragging the knuckle draggers along.

Not to mention that anything run by the state is guaranteed to work half as well and cost five times as much.

Papa_Lazarou

Trust me,every school would have this introduced for transition only for the insurance costs for it being immense. We tried to get it brought in for 4th year back then and we were told there wasnt a chance in hell they would because of the costs

OldmanMondeo

If you take the pratical away and give lessons on the road safety, road rules etc then it would be of some value to cutting cost in insurance and possibly make roads a safer place. OIf schools work in conjuction with local Driving schools it would help keep cost down and also offer the pratical side to students. It could be used to replace the theory test from younger drivers.

BlackWizard

I'm definitely against it.

How about we teach them something more worthwhile instead? Or maybe change our educational system altogether instead of adding stuff onto it.

Cookie_Monster

BlackWizard wrote: »

I'm definitely against it.

How about we teach them something more worthwhile instead? Or maybe change our educational system altogether instead of adding stuff onto it.

why do you not consider it worthwhile? Surely driving is one of the few thing the vast majority of this country have in common. Most people drive regularly, and an even higher %age have driven at some point in their lives.

It'd be more useful than Irish, thats for sure

aldeniro

I think it should be introduced in 5/6th year, 1/2 times a week, covering basics in theory ect. If nothig else might prove useful in showing the devastation that speeding/legacy of pain it leaves on family of people killed in crashes ect. Cant hurt i reckon and if you got some larger insurance companies onboard with regard sponsoring, would be good idea?

BlackWizard

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

It'd be more useful than Irish, thats for sure

We can play that game all day if you like.

But the point is that the Irish post primary educational system needs to be changed.

In a more modern educational system, I think these type of courses should definitely be introduced for both genders. But it should always be a choice for students and it definitely should not affect their overall grade.

By the way I had to take a driving course with my school. We were forced to take it. I wasn't interested (no interest in cars) and it took up the guts of two weeks during school hours. Constant class room interruption and students missing out on class. I wasn't a fan of how they slapped that one on us.