Confessions of a Driving Instructor

Mac Demere:

"Did you forget your glasses?" I asked the driver as politely as possible, hoping to hide my frustration under a joke. (The other choice was to throw my helmet, which is frowned upon but not unprecedented.) "I left them at home," she said, her right foot planted firmly on the accelerator, and traffic cones flying everywhere. "I can't see a thing!" I prayed, poorly, and said under my breath the motto of right-seat driving instructors everywhere: "Today's a beautiful day to die."

I've taught just about every kind of driving instruction, from a superspeedway-stockcar school to basic high school driver's ed. I also used to work for one of the major tire companies and have ridden with more than 10,000 people (including the woman who couldn't see a thing) while doing product presentations. Most of those were exercises in which we wanted the cars to spin out. These days I work weekends at an advanced teen driving school. "I've lived a long, good life," I tell myself. Here are some stories from the right-hand seat.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 4, 2012 1:45 AM
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