I was talking to a driving instructor recently, and was reminiscing about my terrifying glory days kangaroo-jumping around behind an L-plate. He told me that driving instructors face an even more difficult task these days, as many of the young people they are instructing either stopped attending school or lost interest in being taught anything years before they learn to drive. As a result they are out of practise at being taught, and also find it very difficult to assimilate the fact that they cannot avoid doing the test in order to drive. "Convincing them that if they do not change gear in the way I am showing them, or stop braking at the last minute, they will not pass their test is a real struggle. They have been independent for ages, even though they are only sixteen or seventeen, and they have lost the concept of the right way being the only way."
However, these students are the most rewarding to teach, he said, because of the sheer joy they experience at passing. Passing your driving test is a key to freedom, and expensive and laborious as it is, it is a goal for millions of young people every year. If we could somehow harness that desire for freedom, and link it to education and the freedom of choosing your career or lifestyle, we would have an ultra-motivated generation. Sadly currently education is simply not perceived as giving the same reward as that first solo drive.