Blood out of a stone

Very well done Duncan on passing your test with only two minor faults. Have fun shopping for cars and enjoy your driving.

My theory that pupils would obey me as they would a god was well and truly dashed this afternoon. No, I didn't ask one to jump off a cliff; I was with one of my pupils, practicing Bay parking.
We have done this several times before, so I sat back and left him to it. He selected the bay he was going to reverse into, put the car into reverse and was just about to release the handbrake when I asked "Is it safe to reverse?" ..... nothing. He released the handbrake and I put my foot on the dual brake. "Is it safe to reverse?" I repeated. "Er...." He replied before half-heartedly looking around and starting to reverse. He tried to judge his position solely by looking over his right shoulder and made a complete hash of the manoeuvre.
I asked him to secure the car and switch off. I questioned him on the dangers of not making effective observations before reversing and (eventually) got the answers I was looking for. I then questioned him on how he could better judge his position in relation to the bay, but he didn't know. (Bear in mind that this was supposed to be a quick practice of something we have done several times before) I got my whiteboard out and gave a full, detailed instruction on how to reverse the car into the bay.
"Are we going now?" he asked.
"No, not yet. We are going to perfect it this time." I (optimistically) instructed.
He moved forward, out of the bay, and prepared the car to reverse. "Is it safe?" I prompted.
No answer. He just released the handbrake and started reversing. I dualled him again.
"How can you know that is safe to reverse without looking?"
"Oh. Er...." (followed by the briefest of looks around the car).
I kept my foot on the brake while I watched the confusion on his face because the car wasn't moving.
"What are you looking for?"
"Other people." he mumbled before making another hash of the manoeuvre.
I explained exactly what had gone wrong and how he could improve. More diagrams and reminders that he must make effective observations before and during the maneouvre in order to reverse safely and accurately.
In one ear and out the other. There were barely any observations before reversing and he scraped into the bay, more by luck than judgement.
"Right. Off we go." I suggested. He looked at me with more confusion. He obviously knew that it wasn't good enough and probably expected me to tell him to do it again. But I was bored.... bored of my voice echoing back from the inside of his head.

Perhaps I wasn't godly enough. Perhaps I should have looked him in the eye and declared "I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to ignore my instruction." Although, when Samuel L. Jackson says something similar, the fact that he is waving a .45 gives it a certain directness. I doubt that me saying it, while waving a dry-wipe pen will have quite the same effect.