On the whole, my pupils tend to be a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed bunch, keen to learn and always looking to progress. Of course, they are not all perfect and sometimes I don't quite get a response that confirms to me that they understand what I have said. One of my pupils barely said anything else other than "ok", but she recently passed with 4 minor faults, so she must have understood most of what I taught her. Sometimes I want them to argue with me, to explain their reasoning, so it can be a little frustrating when all I get is a succession of 'ok's.
Just as dogs respond to a handful of human words - "walk", "dinner", "chocolate biscuit" (although they are completely ignorant to words such as "bathtime" and "stop chewing that cat") - I sometimes feel that some of my pupils probably hear me saying "Blah blah blah Mirrors blah blah blah blah brake blah blah BRAKE blah blah blah Ambulance".
I use a variety of methods to teach and, because no two pupils are the same, always adapt my methods to suit the pupil. However, there is one method I always use when a pupil is struggling with clutch control: I find an uphill slope on a quiet, or even a private road and ask them to slow right down to walking speed and select 1st gear. Then I ask them to bring the clutch just above the biting point and get the car moving forward as slowly as possible up the hill. Once they can do this it is like a lightbulb switching on above their head and they finally 'get' clutch control. What this also highlights is the fact that the accelerator has little bearing on the speed on such a manoeuvre, it simply reduces the chance of stalling and helps the pupil coordinate both pedals.
Pupils passing their test are easily the high-points of this job, but there are other times, such as today, when a normally monosyllabic pupil suddenly comes to life after cracking the mystery of clutch control, that are almost as rewarding as a test pass.
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