Some students in Emporia and surrounding towns have been focusing on safety and skills this summer in the hope of earning a restricted driver’s license and — in many cases — a discount on vehicle insurance.
Classes already have ended at Chase County, Olpe and Hartford high schools. At Emporia High School, students began studying last week in preparation for driving this week.
Meanwhile, Emporia State University’s classes were serving double duty; students were learning to drive from certified teachers who are learning how to teach driver’s education.
“Drivers’ education is important because car accidents are the Number One killer of teenagers,” said Mark Rathbone, one of five instructors for the courses at EHS. “I think drivers’ education helps make students more aware of the need to drive responsibly and safely. I think they really care about their future and their safety in today’s world.”
Students spend the first few days in the classroom learning about the rules of the road, basic information about vehicles, and techniques for safe driving before they can begin practicing behind the wheel.
The classroom sessions include Operation Lifesaver, which includes railroad hazards and is taught by Charles Wells; “The Convincer,” a program on drinking, driving and seat belt use taught by Kansas Highway Patrolman Tim McCool; driving safely with semi-tractor trailers taught by the Kansas Road Team; and “Seat Belt: Click It or Ticket” by Norraine Wingfield of the Kansas Safety Belt Education Center in Lawrence.
On the last day of classroom study, Rathbone said, students learn how to check fluids, fix flat tires and other basic procedures to ensure that cars are in condition to perform correctly.
Two of the 80 to 100 students in the EHS classes started with a pre-drive inspection on Tuesday before getting inside the car. Chelsey Kessler and Molly Mills, both 14, decided to take the class together.
“If I had to drive with someone I didn’t know, I’d be more nervous,” Molly explained. “Driving with your best friend is a lot easier.”
Neither had learner’s permits, which pleased their instructor. About 20 to 25 percent of his students usually do have permits and already have begun driving.
“The people that come in with no permits don’t have any bad habits,” Rathbone said, as he prepared to do a pre-drive check with the two students. They already had checked the tires and were ready to check fluid levels. Rathbone showed them how to feel for the lever to open the hood, and they gave each other a high-five when each met success.
“What does the alternator do?” Rathbone asked the girls. There was a quiet pause. “Think energy.”
“Oh, I know it, I know it! Electricity,” Chelsey said.
Rathbone reminded them that fluids don’t need to be checked every time the vehicle is driven; however, he told them it is essential to always check around the vehicle to make sure the area is clear before backing out.
On Tuesday, Rathbone measured the teens’ skill levels in backing out, weaving in and out of cones, parking and backing down the breadth of one of the school’s parking lots.
“Basically, on the lot here, we’re looking for skills they possess,” he said.
Chelsey, who went first, completed the course without touching the cones or making any noticeable miscues. Molly was scheduled to drive later, and both soon would be ready for street and highway driving.
Although state law mandates 50 hours of driving experience, with 10 of those after dark, the driving portion of the EHS class goes on until the young drivers show they have the skills to operate vehicles.
“It’s not based on hours any more,” Rathbone said of the high school course. “It’s based on proficiency.”
Proficiency at both teacher and student level is a goal of the drivers’ education course at ESU.
Jerry Will, department chairman for school leadership and secondary-middle schoolteacher education at Emporia State University, said the program is the only one in the state that prepares teachers to teach drivers’ education classes. Classes also are held at different locations around the state. Twenty teachers enrolled for the course in Wichita and 19 took part in the Kansas City session.
Nine teachers have enrolled here this summer, and each has two students to teach.
“I teach one student and they copy my procedures and, hopefully, refine them,” said Jim Hathaway, who teaches the course.
Teachers return to class to exchange ideas about techniques that worked and to develop others, while the teenaged students take part in classroom and on-road studies.
“They get a more intense kind of training than they would at a normal high school,” Hathaway said.
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
Why not just let them take a picture test and be done with it like the Somalians get to do? Why do we make it SO much harder for our own citizens than we do those from other countries?
July 13, 2007 at 2:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )