Drivers Education should be a required class.
By uath13
@uath13 (8192)
United States
January 25, 2011 8:24am CST
My hands are killing me today. Why? Because I had to spend yesterday afternoon working on truck of my daughters boyfriend. Apparently he's had a flat caused by a toe out problem & excessive wear. Some of his friends changed the tire to a full size spare & didn't tighten it down properly. As he was driving along the wheel wobbled so much it eventually ripped off the vehicle. Did he immediatly stop? NO, he drove it around the corner ON THE AXIL!
He calls up asking if he can use my daughters AAA for a tow. I'm like "A tow..for a tire problem? I'll go take a look.". I get there & measure the distance it would have to be towed. Of course it's over the 5 miles we'd get for free ( not that it needed towing anyways really ). I get there & the rim is ruined. The lug holes have been distored horribly. Fortunantly he has the original rim with the worn tire with him so I grab it & the destroyed rim & tire & take them to a discount tire place. $20 later they've swapped the good tire over to the original good rim. Before leaveing the shop I also get a laugh from seeing anither teenager pull in wondering why her check tire pressure light was on & having no idea how to do it 
. We get back to the truck & it turns out he has no jack or tools. 
Fortunantly I have mine handy. The jack won't go in the right place under the axil since it's sitting on the ground so I have to first lift the side some ( which wasn't easy because of how he parked it ) slide the old rim under the now slightly raised axil , lower it back down , move the jack to the right spot & get everything back up & in place. Of course now that I've got it raised I can see the damage to the rotor guard caused by being DRIVEN on it. So now I've got to rip the distorted mess of a rotor guard off so the axil could turn again before I could replace the tire. Wshew.....
Seriously there really needs to be a required drivers ed class that teaches kids the basics like how to check the tire pressure, change the oil & "When your tire outruns your vehicle STOP!"
He calls up asking if he can use my daughters AAA for a tow. I'm like "A tow..for a tire problem? I'll go take a look.". I get there & measure the distance it would have to be towed. Of course it's over the 5 miles we'd get for free ( not that it needed towing anyways really ). I get there & the rim is ruined. The lug holes have been distored horribly. Fortunantly he has the original rim with the worn tire with him so I grab it & the destroyed rim & tire & take them to a discount tire place. $20 later they've swapped the good tire over to the original good rim. Before leaveing the shop I also get a laugh from seeing anither teenager pull in wondering why her check tire pressure light was on & having no idea how to do it . We get back to the truck & it turns out he has no jack or tools. Fortunantly I have mine handy. The jack won't go in the right place under the axil since it's sitting on the ground so I have to first lift the side some ( which wasn't easy because of how he parked it ) slide the old rim under the now slightly raised axil , lower it back down , move the jack to the right spot & get everything back up & in place. Of course now that I've got it raised I can see the damage to the rotor guard caused by being DRIVEN on it. So now I've got to rip the distorted mess of a rotor guard off so the axil could turn again before I could replace the tire. Wshew.....
Seriously there really needs to be a required drivers ed class that teaches kids the basics like how to check the tire pressure, change the oil & "When your tire outruns your vehicle STOP!"2 people like this
5 responses
@dreamsharmin (2281)
• China
24 Mar 11
Yes i do agree with you that driver education should be required a class. Specially in college level. So many people don't take any course to learn driving and then they made accident and kill so mane life. So every person should required to class as all people dream to have one car and drive car own self. Now a days it's very easy to get and driving license without knowing driving well.But if driving requesrd class then all will know to driving and fake license will be close.And can save so many life.
Have a good time!
@sender621 (14894)
• United States
26 Jan 11
I think that driver's education is something that could benefit any student in school. A lot of knowledge about driving could be learned by this. I think driver's education should be a school requirement. You can never know too much too soon when you are learning to drive.
@beaniefanatic13 (5076)
• Grand Junction, Colorado
26 Jan 11
This was called "shop" class when I was in school. Most of the boys signed up for this elective class. Now that schools have cut so many programs I wonder if this is one of them. Shame, I remember the boys loved working on cars. The class taught basics but got in depth too,the longer you were in the class. Shame kids today don't have the same common sense we did when we were young. I have spent more than 1/2 my adult life working in and owning a "shop" or repair shop as their called. You should have had him do the work as you told him how to do it, bet next time that his tire tried to go on without his car he would immedietely stop, lol.
@uath13 (8192)
• United States
26 Jan 11
The basics like checking the oil, tire pressure, changing a tire & roadside repairs should be part of Drivers Ed. Everyone should know how to do the basics if they're going to drive. Shop class is for the actual mechanics that take the engine apart.
I did put the boy to use. I made him do the stuff where there was a good chance he'd get squished if something went wrong.
@ElicBxn (63235)
• United States
25 Jan 11
well, I have changed a tire, but can't change the oil - can ADD oil, or at least I used to be able...
and the only thing that ever outran my car was a hubcap!
I went back later, crossed the highway to the medium and retrieved it and got it back on my car! 
I think my dad once had a tire take off without him, and he stopped
I think my dad once had a tire take off without him, and he stopped
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
25 Jan 11
That's pretty pathetic. Where are his parents, didn't they teach him anything?! My two kids were changing tires when they were 10. Their dad and I taught them how to take care of themselves so they would never have to rely on anyone else if they didn't want to. They can change oil, tires, diagnose basic car problems. They can hunt, fish, know how to grow food, first aid, navigate by the sun and stars and all the other basic survival skills.
It's the parents' job to teach the children how to take care of a car but it's not a bad idea to have at least an hour or two of hands on time in driver education classes to teach the kids about their cars.
We're handing off more and more parental responsibility to other people. That's sad.
