Dumb and Dumber America's driver education is failing us all

摘要

Driver's education is usually taught in high school health class. In those very same underfunded schools that can barely afford math and science textbooks, we are trying to teach adolescents how to pilot two-ton death machines. In California, all that's required to obtain a learner's permit is 30 hours of classroom instruction and six hours behind the wheel; a provisional license requires an additional 50 hours of supervised driving. Some states with districts too poor to offer driver's ed allow kids to learn how to drive online. Home-schooling allows parents to vouch that their kids have the requisite knowledge to apply for a license, and little prevents parents from fudging the numbers for the required hours of driving practice, either.