August 6, 2003
Cruise control
Student driver instructors use guiding hand, quick foot brake
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
With a "cheese" on top, reserve tanks of patience and steady nerves, driver's education instructors hit the road daily with people lacking the slightest clue of how to direct tons of steel through traffic.
With one small brake at their disposal to ward off disaster, these teachers impart for their students the basics of driving in calm, patient voices, never failing to repeat themselves again and again, for student after student: 'slow down,' 'use the brake' and 'check your mirrors.'
"I like kids, everybody says I'm very patient, but I don't think I am," said Curt Kipke of Acme, owner of Grand Traverse Driver Education, Inc. "It takes the proper attitude and it does take some patience, but I think it takes more patience with the other drivers out there than with the kids."
Other drivers on the road often steam with impatience when caught behind a hesitant not-yet-15 year old novice, whose private travails are branded for all by the ignominious yellow sign on top of the car (known to instructors as the "cheese.")
These hurrying drivers seem to instantly dismiss their own awkward first hours behind the wheel in their rush to get somewhere. They do not hesitate to cut off the driver's education car, dart around it or do anything possible to avoid being stuck behind a car actually doing the speed limit.
"That can get frustrating and really difficult for the kids and they can get real gun-shy," noted Kipke, a driver's education instructor for 20 years.
Driver's education instructors are masters of encouragement and patience, but their job description also includes spikes of terror.
"The joke of driver's ed instructors is hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror," said Marshall Tompkins of the Roadmaster Driving School.
Instructors spend up to six hours on the road with the beginning drivers, most whom are just over 14 years and 8 months old. While they also occasionally work with older students, this is the minimum age to begin the three-step, approximately two-year process of obtaining a Level 3 driver's license (an unrestricted license.)
Driver's education programs also include a combined total of 30 hours of classroom instruction over two sessions, the requirement for aspiring drivers under 18. Classes and driving practice are offered year-round. To Kipke, conducting classes during the winter not only gives students invaluable supervised snow experience, it can be safer.
"If you make a mistake there's snow banks for them to go into, but during the summer months, there's nothing," he said. "You'll wind up kissing a tree."
Driver's education programs vary by school district between school programs, both free and for a fee, and private programs. Traverse City Area Public Schools dropped their program in the 1990s, said Kipke, who used to run this operation.
He now offers one of six area programs serving the Traverse City area with either driver's education or the state-mandated on-road testing.
Tompkins weighs in with the mandatory testing portion of the driver's license quest. He has worked for the Roadmaster Driving School for four years. He enjoys working with students and spent a few years as an instructor though he now mostly conducts driving tests.
Tompkins noted that previous experience driving boats, tractors and motorcycles can make a major difference in competence and confidence for young drivers. The drivers who have never turned a key before are often the most challenging, though a know-it-all attitude accompanied by bad habits can also be difficult.
"The biggest thing in driver's ed is attitude, where familiarity breeds contempt," Tompkins said. "You ride in cars all your life and think you can do it but the distance between the back seat and the front seat is huge."
Driver's education instructors spend hours with their students during the typical three-week course. The driving time, especially, encourages students to forge bonds with the instructor, said Joellen Kyser, co-owner of Streetwise Driving School.
Kyser and her husband, Chris, founded the Streetwise Driving School eight years ago after they were unhappy with the program their sons completed. Her two now-adult sons are also instructors in the school.
A cheerful, unflappable woman, Joellen enjoys working with the students and does not quail at monotonous hours behind the wheel. She prompts nervous students to chomp on gum to help soothe nerves, keeping packs handy in her car, and always lends a listening ear.
"You probably learn way more than you want to in six hours with them in the car, sometimes it's like counseling sessions," noted Kyser, who said 500 students a year attend Streetwise. "We have kids who stop by all the time, they pop in to show me their driver's license."
"What's rewarding is when kids come back and say, 'Hey! Two years, no accidents'" she said.