Many states require drivers education to be administered through the local public school or a “state certified” commercial driving school. Shouldn’t parents have the choice to teach their children how to drive safely? After all, it is parents who are responsible for the well-being and safety of their children.

The Solution: Parent-Taught Driver’s Education

Parental involvement is the answer. I am convinced the best way to be involved in your teenager’s driving instruction is to do it yourself!

I have talked to thousands of parents who despaired over the academic decline in the public schools. They turned to homeschooling to prevent their child from becoming a statistic of academic failure. They often told me, “We can do a better job of teaching our children than the schools.” And they did! All the statistics show homeschooling students all over the country continue to excel academically. Why do homeschool children on the average score higher than the national average on national achievement tests? Because parents teach them one on one, know their strengths and weaknesses best, love them more, and are willing to sacrifice what it takes to provide them a good education.

Teaching our own children how to drive is merely an extension of this philosophy. It is an opportunity to apply the same principles involved in successful homeschooling. But you can add one important ingredient and incentive: in driver’s training, your children’s lives are at stake.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety believes that parent-directed driver’s education is a reasonable alternative for families in lieu of state-licensed driver’s education programs. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety conducted a study in 1985 of 52,304 public high school licensed and unlicensed students from 75 schools in seven different states. They found that, “the most important teaching sources were fathers, mothers and school courses.” Sixty-six percent of the high school drivers reported their fathers contributed some or a lot and 56% reported similar contributions from their mothers.

As of September 2006, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Status Report advised Americans that traditional driver education does not provide the intended benefits of producing a safer driver. This report suggests that the way to lower crash potential is to gradually release young drivers as they demonstrate maturity and skill, while simultaneously using parents to train and monitor them during this process. Therefore, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recommends that new drivers be trained through what they call Graduated Driver Licensing’a systematic process that controls progression to unrestricted driving. The new driver initially receives a restricted license and graduates to an unrestricted license through time and increased experience. Graduated licensing laws have been adopted in 47 states and usually include such restrictions as curfews, limits on the number of teen passengers, requirements involving parental supervision, and zero tolerance for teen alcohol use.

Parent-taught driver education programs like the National Driver Training Institute (NDTI) of Colorado Springs take the process a step further by initiating the controlled progression during the driver education process through an entirely parent-taught program. Rather than relying on the state to oversee the young driver’s progress, the parents assess the teen’s maturity, attitude, and experience to determine the conditions under which he may drive. Many of the largest insurance companies across the country have recognized NDTI’s parent-taught driver education program, “Help for the Teenager Who Wants to Drive,” as an approved program. Many states have formally approved or certified the program.

In October 2000, the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs conducted a research project on the effectiveness of parent taught driver training. The survey population consisted of teens that had completed the National Driver Training Institute’s parent-taught driver education program.

The statistics showed that parent-taught driver training saves lives!

For example, according to insurance company statistics, out of every 100 teen drivers:

• 37 will be ticketed for speeding,
• 28 will be involved in accidents,
• 13 will be injured in an automobile accident,
• 4 will be ticketed for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and
• 1 will be killed in an automobile accident.

On the other hand, according to the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs survey, for every 100 students using NDTI’s parent taught driver education program:

• 8 were ticketed for speeding,
• 8 were involved in accidents,
• 6 were injured in automobile accidents,
• 1 was ticketed for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and there were no fatalities.
  

In the 1940s and 50s, parents were the primary teachers of their own children in driver’s education programs. Later in the 1960s and 70s, the focus shifted to school-taught driver’s education. This shift was made in the hopes of assisting teenagers in driving tests and in gaining important driving skills. However, the statistics clearly demonstrate that this has not improved teenage driving safety.

A study of issues affecting young drivers, released in December 2000 by George Mason University’s Center for Advancement of Public Health and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, identified parental involvement as the most important factor in teaching teens safe driving behaviors. The study, which is entitled Young Drivers: A Study of Policies and Practices, used data gathered through interviews with state and national experts as well as focus groups held with parents, teens, and driver education instructors. The study reports that teens develop driving habits based on their parents as role models.

However, the study notes that in teaching teens to drive, parents often rely on the information and techniques with which they are familiar and unknowingly pass on outdated and sometimes erroneous information. While driver education provides a comprehensive overview for first time drivers, the curriculum is most effective when parents get involved in behind the wheel practice sessions with young drivers. Parents are often unaware that young drivers need far more practical experience behind the wheel than the driver’s education curriculum is able to provide. (The study is available on the George Mason University website or may be requested by calling 703-993-3697.)