The new law requiring teens to have a learner’s permit for nine months rather than three months is causing some problems. The idea is to give kids more time with supervised experience before letting them out on the road alone. The effect may actually be to have them start earlier.
For example, the Pleasant Plains school district, unlike Springfield, seems to be accommodating students in light of the new law. One of my daughters just started at the high school this week and, at 14 and a first semester freshman, she is enrolled in drivers ed. This will allow her to get the drivers ed in, and her 9 months of learner's permit time before she’s 16. So while she will be getting more experience before getting a real license, she’s getting that experience at an earlier age. I don’t know if that’s good or bad but it is one effect the new law is having.
The other, perhaps not entirely unintended, consequence will be that kids not able to get into divers ed earlier, lie those in Springfield public schools, will be getting their actual license at some point after their 16th birthday. Maybe months after. Again, I’m not sure this is good or bad (well, I’m sure it’s bad in the minds of the students) but the days of pretty much guaranteeing you can get your driver’s license on your 16th birthday may be over for awhile, at least until the school districts can adjust.
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2 comments:
OMG!
And the unmentioned gripe is (drum roll please).............
Dave will have to spend more time behind the wheel with his daughter before she gets her license!
Which really is a reason to gripe folks. We deliberately spent three times as many hours behind the wheel with my daughter this spring as was required just so we'd have what we felt was a proper number of hours.
Was it painful, absolutely.
Did it work? Well except for my daughter backing into a pole - should have spent more time on that darn it - she hasn't been in an accident yet. Still I can sleep a little bit easier at night - and isn't that worth the trouble?
Isn't it worth the extra effort to feel that you've given your children the extra time to develop better driving skills before you set them loose on the roads?
My daughter didn't stroll down to DMV on her sixteenth birthday and pick her license up. She had to wait until the end of the semester to do that - and it wasn't any big deal at all - even to her.
JP
I've got a son who just got his drivers permit and it is scary with him driving. He's a good driver, however he is a new driver and the extra 6 months of practice is a great law. I also bought some magnets for the car so all you other drivers know he is a new driver. I read about a website in Newsweek magazine that sells these magnets - the website is rookiedriver.net and it has great information about teen driving with a bunch of links to other great sites. The products are better than anything else I've seen - my son is now driving with a magnet on our car - I wish all parents of new drivers would use these so we would all know to look out for them while they are "practicing"! I don't know when we'll agree to take off the magnets and let him get his license - he needs many more hours of practice before we even begin to think about that - I don't care how old he is - until I feel he is ready - he is still "practicing".
Kudos to the Illinois Governor!
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