(Sorry for the lack of posting lately. I’m trying folks! I’ll have some news coming up soon, but until then, I’m trying to get back on track!)
I’ll admit it. In general, guys are better drivers than girls. There are absolutely exceptions to that rule. But I’ve found that the majority of the time, the rule holds true. Maybe it’s just how our brains are wired. Maybe something to do with hand/eye/foot coordination?
Wanna hear a story that typifies this rule? (And don’t you love the word typifies?) Well of course you do! That’s why you’re here, right?
When I was 15, I began taking a driver’s ed class through my high school. Coach Wilkerson was our teacher. That man terrified me. He was cruel. He made you parallel park between the principal and vice principal’s cars. He taught you how to back into a parking spot at the police station. He quizzed you on driving rules as you whizzed down the highway. But the worst was the last day of class. It was the thing that high school legends are made of.
I went first on that fateful day. Charles, my driving partner sat in the backseat, calm and collected. I sat in the front, with Coach Wilkerson at my side. He had the radio tuned to a local country music station. I drove to the top of a hill, a line of cones dotting the parking lot below me. Coach Wilkerson reached over and slowly lifted the armrest that separated us.
I put it back down.
He lifted it.
I put it back down.
He lifted it, and threatened to fail me.
I left it up.
He edged nearer, his foot moving closer to the gas. Suddenly the car lurched down the hill, his foot mashed down on the pedal. I screamed, trying desperately to dodge the cones in front of me. Thump thump. Cones flew out from underneath the car.
“THAT COULD HAVE BEEN A CHILD!” yelled Coach Wilkerson.
“I DIDN’T MEAN TO KILL IT!” I yelled back, my hands shaking on the steering wheel.
“That was just to show you that you don’t have control when you drive too fast,” Coach Wilkerson said calmly, turning up the radio so he could hear Garth Brooks over my ragged breathing.
Charles and I then switched seats. I walked around as Charles smiled sympathetically and I righted the crumpled children cones that surrounded the car. I sulked in the backseat as Charles effortlessly drove the car between the cones. He didn’t kill one innocent child. Coach Wilkerson patted him on the shoulder, and the two harmonized to the closing lines of “Unanswered Prayers.”
At least, that’s how I remember it.
I ended up with a B in driver’s ed, and I got my learner’s permit a few weeks later.
And traffic cones still give me nightmares.
I’m not sure I agree that men are better drivers, but it’s true they have more 3D spatial intelligence–and they get lots of practice playing video games. I still can’t play any video games that are anything but side-scrolling. If men are better drivers, maybe that’s why.
Wow, do i ever remember that class! But don’t feel too bad – didn’t he give everyone a “B” unless they actually got in a real car accident?? I remember him saying “you REALLY learn something when you get in an accident”. grrrrr….i got a B too!
oh, and here in Albania, it is true that men are better drivers than women, but that really isnt’ saying much since everyone is pretty much a horrible driver. I’ve been driving for longer than pretty much everyone in this country. Really.
Brandy, All I could do was laugh and laugh each line… made me laugh harder and harder…
i’m wondering how fast you were actually going when you started hitting the kids. were you sitting there stopped on the top of the hill when he punched the gas to go like 20? then as you’re freaking out at the gas pedal stomping, you’re not paying attention to the flattened kids. i think that may be the more likely story.
my drivers ed class was like that, with a coach and all. we didn’t have to parallel park though. i did miss a turn one time because he said i was going too fast to make it. we drove around in a chevy corsica.
My driver’s ed teacher was a male named Kimberly. You can imagine the overcompensating he did!
Your advisor agress with factual statements made in this article.
Well you are still driving now arn’t you?? I learned to drive when I was 14 and living in Alaska. 8 feet of snow with chains on the tires. My hubby will tell you men are better drivers. I somehow (not meaning to really) get the hub caps on my van scratched up on a monthly basis so therefore we get a monthy e-mail from hubcaps.com letting us know the specials. we recently drove to Gulf Shores for vacation and Joe put the new hubcaps on for the trip and when we returned he replaced the scratched ones for me to use. Then on Sunday morning he put the new ones on for us to drive to church like the good little family we lead everyone to believe. Then when I was going to the grocery store after church I had to wait while he changed back the scratched ones. No LIe!!! We all have our crosses to bare. Cindy