My Son Got His Permit, So I Took Him To Teen Driving School. Who Learned More, Me or Him?
Classes like this can keep your teen drivers safer than the average kids on the road.
If you’re like most parents, when your teenager reaches driving age you may feel the full gamut of emotions. Excitement: He can finally drive himself to baseball practice! Wistfulness: How did my baby get to be old enough to drive? Fear: Heaven help us. Teen driving school can help with two of those things at least.
It’s a fact that driving is a dangerous activity. Car crashes are a leading cause of death for teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19, and basic driver’s license training doesn’t do much to ease your fears. Trust me. My son, now 15, took a classroom course and a few sessions with an instructor, but I was dissatisfied with how little they prepared him for adverse situations on the road. Sure, he can start the car and drive under normal conditions; but as veteran drivers know, anything can happen.
That’s why I signed up for a Teen Driving Solutions weekend course at the Virginia International Raceway. Over two days, this teen driving school delivered a substantial and comprehensive opportunity to push his fledgling driving skills to the limit. At the same time, I’d learn how to be a better coach. And that, I know, is half the battle.
This story is 100% human-researched and written based on actual first-person knowledge, extensive experience, and expertise on the subject of cars and trucks.
Make Teen Driving School Fun with Some Sightseeing
I turned teen driving school weekend into a semi-vacation and college exposure trip by inviting another mom and her son to join us. We flew into Raleigh, North Carolina, picked up a cushy Mazda CX-90, and drove an hour to Chapel Hill. On the campus of University of North Carolina, we stayed at the Hyatt Rizzo Center, where the boys loved that on each floor there was a freezer packed full of ice cream bars. Of course, we toured the home of the Tarheels on the UNC campus and checked out the basketball museum.
The next day, we headed up to the state border for class at the Virginia International Raceway (known affectionately as VIR). We checked in with owner Dan Wagner and settled in for our two days of learning.
About two dozen teens and their parents attended this session, which was a full room. It’s critical for parents to attend, Dan says, because they have to understand how to not just teach the kids but set a strong example, too. The first session set expectations for the class for the grownups and teens. Then the groups were separated, and the kids headed straight for the cars with their instructors at a three-to-one-ratio.
The fun was about to begin.
Read: 10 Surprising Things We Learned When Our Kids Turned Into Teen Drivers
This is Why it’s So Important For Teens to Learn About Driving Safety
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are five main contributors to teen fatalities while driving:
- Over-correcting steering
- Dropping a tire off the pavement
- Improperly judging safe following distances
- Distractions
- Failing to buckle seat belts
The fifth elements has been covered at length through public service campaigns like “Click it or Ticket” to encourage people to buckle their safety belts. And the fourth, distraction, is evident every time you get on the road. How many people do you see on the road with their phone in one hand and the other on the steering wheel, with their eyes glued to their digital device? I notice it a lot. We talk about it often.
Read: Tips and Tools for Teen Driver Safety
The Harder Lesson: Controlling the Car
Teen driving school will teach techniques like how to recover from oversteering or understeering (when you temporarily lose steering control), what to do when one or more tires runs off the road, or how to ensure you’re following at a safe distance are just as critical, but they don’t get as much emphasis.
Raise your hand if you know how to teach your teen how to escape from a drifting skid. If you didn’t, know you’re far from alone. Unless you’ve had driving lessons yourself to learn what to do in these situations, you might feel unsure or even flat-out uncomfortable.
Dan’s motto is “arrive alive every time you drive” and every segment of the training took that mantra seriously.
Read: Teach Someone to Drive a Stick Shift in 8 Easy Steps
Practice Makes—Well, Not Perfect, But it Sets the Tone
While parents were learning about basic car maintenance and teen psychology, the young drivers were already out on the skid pad in used Ford Taurus and Crown Victoria models formerly used by law enforcement. In pairs, the cars were fitted with special wheels to mimic understeer and oversteer situations and the kids taught how to recover.
All exercises are done at slow speed at Teen Driving Solutions, with safety in mind. Instructors have access to a second set of pedals on the passenger side so they can brake and accelerate as needed. Sometimes, they’d throw the teen drivers off by pressing on the brake and causing it to skid, and other times they’d hit the gas pedal and teach them how to react.
Then, the skid pad was soaked in water so the drivers could practice driving on a slippery surface. When the kids and parents switched places, it was clear that not all of the parents knew how to recover properly, either. That’s an eye-opening experience; if you don’t know what to do then your child won’t, either.
Get There With Your Teen
Before we were dismissed after the second day, a former student spoke to the group. He had been in a crash in the past few months, and he talked about what lessons he had applied to avoid what could have been a much worse outcome.
By the end of the weekend, I had talked to several teen drivers, their parents, and the instructors on site. Across the board, parents exhibited signs of relief, thanks, and somber recognition of the immense responsibility in their hands. The teens expressed excitement and awe for all they learned.
There Are Other Teen Driving School Options, and Many Are Free
Teen Driving Solutions is the most comprehensive advanced driving schools for teens by far, and it requires the largest investment. If you can’t get to Virginia, take a look at classes nationwide from B.R.A.K.E.S., run by former pro drag racer Doug Herbert; Street Survival, operated by Tire Rack; or Ford’s Driving Skills for Life. Many of these schools are operated free of charge and some even provide the track and the instruction cars.
No matter which one you pick, it’s 100 percent worth enrolling your teen in an advanced driving school. It might save their life.
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