After spending a lot of time on the road lately, I wish they taught driver education. Our school district offered it as an additional thing that you had to pay for in order to get the required driving instructor time to pass the class. I think basic driver education should be part of the curriculum. They teach small children how to properly cross the street, why not teach older children road safety? Kids ride bicycles, can drive before adulthood, and a lot of them have to commute to school with funding shortages for buses. Our kids were over a mile away from the school but that was too close to be picked up by a bus and they had to walk.
It is important to know these things and judging by the way people drive these days, I think a lot of unsafe people got licensed during COVID. The worst thing is lane merging. Nobody knows how to zipper anymore. They think highway traffic should slow down to let them on. It is absolutely ridiculous.
A lot of information in the driver manual is also helpful for pedestrians. You learn about stopping distances and how affected drivers are by different light levels. It is good information to have. They could even go over how to use public transportation. My girls were Girl Scouts and did a class on public transit one afternoon. They rode it all over town, using all available methods.
While we are at it, the skills taught during babysitter’s training would also be good. My kids were CPR certified, knew basic first aid, and a bunch of other skills that a babysitter should have. Older siblings are sometimes the primary caregivers after school for younger siblings. It would be nice if they had actual training on what to do. They also took a class on what to do if you are home alone. It went over safety concerns and how to know when to get help. They also took an online safety course. It teaches kids how to not believe everything they see online. What to do with disturbing information. How to deal with strangers.
Community and safety information is always a good thing to share with children. If everyone learned what to do at a younger age, our communities would be a safer place to live.
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