Could you be a better instructor?
At a recent meeting of our association of driving instructors, the president asked us: ‘Hands up, who thinks they are a good instructor?’ Everyone’s hand went up, except mine. Why did I not declare myself as good as the rest?
The speaker went on to tell us, that the Transport Office, responsible for monitoring driving instructors, thinks the majority of us are ‘crap’. Thanks.
The front-page headline of ‘The Instructor’ (NSW Instructor’s Ass. Newsletter) Issue 9, 2000 states: ‘Poor instructors put on notice’. Initially I thought, the article urges us to raise our prices, as to not be so poor, but reading further it said: ‘Government officials want to search out and warn instructors, who consistently present for tests students, that are below standard". Is the association that is supposed to represent instructor’s interests, joining with the government in an ‘instructor-they-dislike- witch-hunt’?
Can one really say, an instructor is a poor one, just because his/ her students fail more tests? Maybe a ‘below standard’ instructor concentrates more on crash avoidance techniques rather than the ‘ picky details’ of a driving test, many of which have nothing to do with road safety? Here in Adelaide recently, a young women wrapped her car around a tree only three weeks after obtaining her licence.
This new driver, who lost her life, probably knew exactly, that she must indicate for 5 seconds, when pulling away from the kerb, which is law here. She was well versed in the system of driving, first mirror, then signal. Woe, if she indicated only 3 seconds or looked in the mirror too late. She also practiced dozens of three-point turns and U-Turns and knew, that you had to stop dead at a stop sign. Her instructor had her well prepared for the driving test. This sounds cynical, I know, but reflects some frustration, that I think all of us experience with the system.
I believe, it’s almost impossible to gauge how good or bad instructors perform, unless one spends at least a day in their car while they conduct driving tuition. Better still, spend a few days, because we all have ‘off-days’.
Sure, there are instructors that do not take their job as seriously as others. But let the market sort out these ‘poor’ instructors.
Instructors criticizing others must be careful not to believe everything they hear. But we love to circulate, and blow up, ‘bad instructor’ stories. It deflects our own weaknesses onto someone else, which makes us feels better. Psychologists call it ‘projection’. It’s a sure sign of some problem we need to address in ourselves. Government authorities and, as in above case, one of our own associations, may be falling in exactly this kind of psychological trap.
Another kind of ‘poor’ instructor is the one that teaches someone with 20 lessons, while his/her college takes 30 lessons average per student. If I employed these two instructors, I may be tempted to regard the latter one better, better for business that is.
I am working on becoming a better instructor.