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When I started out, as a trainee driving instructor with BSM, I remember being surprised by some instructors who seemed almost relieved when a pupil cancelled a lesson, or pleased when they had a quiet day ahead. I remember one even suggesting that I would be the same after a few years. (By the way, I am not just referring to BSM instructors). Well, several years later and I can confirm that they were wrong; If anything, I look forward to my lessons even more than I used to. I particularly enjoy the fact that every single lesson is different. No two pupils are the same and, even with the same pupil, no two lessons are the same.
Recently, with many pupils approaching their tests, I have had a large proportion of lessons where they know what they should and should not be doing, and it is a matter of polishing their skills to the best of our abilities. With so many passing recently and so many new pupils, the large majority of my pupils are now closer to the other end of the ability range. It can take a little adjustment on my part. No matter how many notes I make in my diary, it is impossible to remember just how good/bad a particular pupil's clutch control or parallel park, for example, is.
When I was undergoing my training for my part 3 exam, I had to tailor the level of instruction to the standard of pupil. Sometimes with training, it was easy to think 'Well surely a pupil would not do that?!' or 'Surely if I told a pupil to do this they would do it?'. Wrong. Very occasionally you get a pupil who will listen to my instruction and be able to do it from that point onwards..... very occasionally. With the large majority of pupils, I have to start with explanation (with diagrams and, sometimes, demonstration), then we practice with me giving full step-by-step instruction. When that goes well, we practice with me asking them with questions in advance. For example, "There is a parked car up ahead. What is the first thing you need to do?" Once they can manage the skill without prompts I try leaving them to it, but watching out for anything they might be missing. By working our way through this Explained - Guided - Prompted - Independent process, we hope to get to the stage where they can do it all without me. At this point I cry because they don't need me anymore.
But it gets more complicated than that because, as I said earlier, every lesson is different. And my pupils are human (ish). Sometimes on a lesson, I will ask a trained pupil to turn right at a crossroads, for example, and I can see them hesitating because their mind goes blank and they forget who has priority. Or, conversely, I will ask a relatively new pupil to do something and, just as I am about to instruct them to do something, I see that they are already doing it.
For a pupil who can usually do a particular manoeuvre/skill, they can find it frustrating when, inexplicably, they then have a lesson when they are struggling. What they don't understand is that ALL drivers are like that. ALL drivers have stalled, forgotten to indicate, made a pig's ear of a parallel park or scuffed the curb since passing their test.
Probably the most rewarding part of instructing is when a pupil really struggles with something, then, one day, they crack it. So, at the moment, I have lots of pupils who are struggling with various aspects of their lessons. There are times when, even when we step back a bit, go through a full explanation, followed by full, guided instruction, they can still get it wrong. They get frustrated and I scratch my head and try to think of a different approach. One way or another we get there.
It was only a few months ago that Maggie was struggling with her reversing, James' approach to junctions was causing him problems, and Franci had no idea what was happening around her car. As I wrote last week, they all passed with just four minor faults between them. I would love to have a time machine to take them back to their first lessons to see how far they progressed. But I guarantee that, at some point in the future they will do something stupid while driving and maybe think 'I'm glad Martin wasn't here to see that.'

Room for improvement (but not much)

10.00am: A bright, sunny morning and Ullapool is a patriotic palette of red tulips, whitewashed cottages and blue sky, with a variety of blossom-filled trees lining the roads. Only three pupils out on test today, so my chances of a 100% pass rate are better than usual.

Maggie is already out, on her 9.37am test. This is her third attempt and, if she can conquer her nerves, she could pass easily. She just finds the artificial aspect of tests (and even her early lessons) intimidating. A few weeks back I simply asked her to drive around Ullapool, going wherever she wanted to go. I suggested that she drive from her house to work, stop off at a shop and just drive as though I wasn’t there. She drove perfectly and I could not fault a single aspect of the drive. So we know she can do it, she just needs to forget that she has someone sitting next to her.

11.03am: Fantastic! Maggie was still shaking at the start of her test, but she passed with only 1 minor fault. Very pleased for her as she decided, early on, that, having started on her course, she was going to see it through until she passed. It’s surprising, but not every pupil is like that.

 James is currently out on his 10.44am test, his first attempt. He was with me when I was waiting for Maggie to complete her test, so he knew how well she had done. “No pressure James, but you have to beat Maggie’s result.” I suggested.

1.52pm: Alas, James could not better Maggie’s result (who could?), but he came very close, passing with just 2 minor faults. Surprisingly, they were both for just holding back slightly when it was safe to go up towards the speed limit. But that is a big effort on his part because early lessons involved a lot of me trying to slow him down.

I am trying to rush a smoked mackerel and beetroot salad and an espresso at The Ceilidh Place. Shame, because it is too good to rush, but Franci is currently out on her first attempt and will be finishing soon. High hopes that Franci will complete a clean sweep for me because, since she concentrated on her use of mirrors, it has been hard to fault her driving; I could almost nod off and have a crafty sleep during her lessons.

8.40pm: Finally, after three tests and six lessons, I am done for the day. Franci could not beat Maggie’s result either, but she matched it, passing with one single minor fault (not indicating to move off when there was a car ahead approaching). Absolutely fantastic drives from all three pupils and I finally have my clean sweep at an Ullapool test day. Ok, it was only three tests, but still 100%. James’ mum was asking me if I get nervous waiting for my pupils to return from their tests. I do; it doesn’t matter how good I think their driving is, there is always the possibility that they will make a silly mistake and I will have to gee them up and get them thinking about their next attempt. Today, I was as sure as it is possible to be that all three would pass, but Maggie, James and Franci excelled themselves and I am extremely proud of them.

It’s going to be hard to better today’s tests next month, but I will certainly try.

Baa

The scenario: 6.30am and my pupil is driving along the A96 (a reasonably straight road with many overtaking opportunities) to Inverness. There are 5 cars evenly-spaced ahead of us, all cruising at a comfortable 55 – 60mph, and we have about 16 miles to go. Everyone seems happy and no-one seems bothered about overtaking. Ten minutes later, a car approaches us from behind, sits there for a minute or so, then progressively overtakes us and the cars ahead. This acted as a trigger for one of the cars ahead to decide that they too would overtake. Then another one, and another one, until there was just the initial leading car ahead of us. So, for 10 – 12 miles, everyone seemed quite happy with their speed, but as soon as one car overtook, four other drivers then decided that they wanted to go faster – especially pointless considering that they were, by that point, only a few miles from Inverness.

2^nd scenario: I am heading home from my lessons in Elgin, again in free-flowing traffic. Ahead is a 4-way roundabout with the road ahead being slightly to the right (about 1 o’clock if thought of as a clock face). The correct approach is to treat it simply as a ‘straight-ahead’ and approach in the left lane, with no signal. By doing that, traffic approaching from the opposite direction will be confident that they will not have to give way. The first few cars approach correctly, then one car approaches in the right lane, indicating right (the only exit on the right is a private road). Naturally, oncoming cars begin to slow, expecting him to turn right, but he carries on ahead. But then other cars ahead began to copy him, indicating right and moving to the right lane, even though all of them went straight ahead.

3^rd scenario: My pupil is in Inverness, approaching some traffic lights where I have asked him to turn right. He checks mirrors, indicates and moves into the lane (which an arrow indicates is for rights turns only). The lights are red and he has to stop behind three cars, none of which are indicating right. My pupil then cancelled his indicator.

 “Have you changed your mind? Are we going somewhere else?” I asked him.

“No.” He replies, puzzled.

“So why have you cancelled your indicator?”

“Because this lane only goes right and the cars ahead aren’t indicating.”

“Ok. Imagine you are a pedestrian about to cross that road there,” I said, pointing to the road we wanted to turn into, “and you look at these cars and see that they are not indicating right. Where do you think they are going?”

“Ahead.”

“So you might think it was safe to cross the road just as those cars started moving?”

“So why are the other they not indicating?” He asked, referring to the cars ahead of us.

“Because they are not good drivers.” (not exactly the words I used). 

It’s a sheep mentality. In every one of the above (real) situations, drivers were, initially, doing the right thing, then decided to copy someone else who, in these cases, was doing something wrong. For me, these situations are useful because they all provide learning opportunities and I can highlight the consequences of mindlessly copying what other drivers are doing.

Time to go; I’m getting hungry. I fancy mutton for dinner now.

Revolting pedants

Just wanted to share this real exchange on Facebook that someone alerted me to (it appeals to the pedant in me):

Lindsay: F**k fake peeple that talk shit on FB
Daniel: *people
Lindsay: Shut up Danel! I'm pissed i'm not looking at my spell check!
Daniel: *Daniel
Lindsay: STOP!!! GET OF MY PAGE!!!!
Daniel: *off
Elizabeth: Daniel, please stop! she has had a rough day! her Dad and me are trying to help her threw a problem! and you are not helping!
Daniel: * through
Lindsay: Daniel now your f**king with my family! STOP!!
Daniel: * You're as in you're making this too easy for me.

There are many more like this at http://www.someecards.com/2011/04/06/the-best-obnoxious-responses-to-misspellings-on-facebook .

Died and gone to heaven

Did you know, and not a lot of people know this, that, when you die, the afterlife is much more ordered and planned than real life. All your earthly experiences are re-lived, but grouped into similar categories. For example, you will spend approximately 20 – 25 continuous years sleeping. You will spend about 3 – 4 years doing nothing but eating and another couple of years drinking. You will spend maybe a year lying on a beach and all your sexual experiences will be continuous. This all sounds great but there is a downside: You will suffer all your pain at once; for 27 hours you will do nothing but cut yourself, break bones and worse. You will endure over five months sat on a toilet. Plus there is the boredom too; day after day of waiting in airport terminals, fifteen months searching for lost items and perhaps even longer wondering where other drivers are going (because they are not indicating).

Sadly, I’m not the person who created this idea of the afterlife. It is pinched (and tweaked) from “Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives” by David Eagleman. I'm beginning to wonder if I am already in the afterlife (or, that particular version of it), things seem to be either very good, or very bad. After a period of relative dolce vita, endless consecutive test passes (well, eight), good weather and general plain sailing, I then had a particularly unpleasant week; lesson cancellations, rubbish weather, bursting tyres, lost debit cards, crashing computers and a pupil failing their test after making a pig's ear of their reversing manoeuvre. The roads seemed less safe too; whilst one of my Nairn pupils was driving to Inverness one morning - keeping up with the flow of traffic at a nice, steady 60mph - a complete prat in a red VW Golf (SX03EEW) thought it would be a good idea to overtake us as we approached a right-hand bend. When an oncoming car came around that bend he/she was forced to brake sharply and swerve violently back in front of us, avoiding the ditch by a matter of nanometres. The 'Baby on board' sign, restricting their vision, only added to my despair.

Then, last Wednesday, the clouds lifted, the temperature started creeping into the twenties, the sun shone and life, in general, improved...

A few weeks earlier one of my pupils had bizarrely not shown up for his driving test. I had tried calling and texting him, but without reply. Very strange. It turned out he had been rushed to hospital that morning with lung problems, so the driving test was far from being his priority. Last week he called me to explain and to say that he had re-booked his test in Alness (he didn't want to wait for an Inverness test). Could I help? (he had given me two days’ notice). Luckily (and thank you to my obliging pupils), I was able to reschedule a few lessons and we were on for Alness. I used to teach in the Alness/Invergordon area when I lived in Glen Urquhart, but had not taught (or even been near the place) for over three years. We only had an hour to have a quick look around the area, but it should not matter if they don't know the area, if he just applies what he had learned in Nairn/Inverness, there should be no problem. And so it proved, so congratulations to Norman on passing first-time (sort of).

My computer then made a miraculous recovery. The computer engineer had told me that it was beyond repair and I would have to replace it. I'm not sufficiently skilled in computer repair to quibble, but I undertook the complex procedure of turning it off, leaving it to fester for a few days, then turning it back on again, and that has seemed to fix the problem.

A new debit card was received, I had three enjoyable days of pupils taking their Pass Plus course, Jane and I enjoyed an overdue horse ride in Darnaway Forest, Liverpool (and Andy Carroll) sprang to life (against Manchester City), some pupils paid for blocks of lessons and, to top it all off, the four new pupils who had their first lessons booked this week all turned up!

In the chapter referred to in David Eagleman’s book, he concludes by suggesting that, in this version of the afterlife, you covet a more earthly life where experiences are split into smaller swallowable pieces, where one enjoys jumping from one emotion to the next. I have to agree, imagine supporting a football team who win everything in sight for two decades, then nothing for the next two decades..... Oops! Forget that last comment.

It never rains but it pours

Taking the title of this post literally, I watch with trepidation the forecast for the West Highlands; 24 hours of heavy rain with probable flooding. I have an 8.40am test tomorrow morning (meaning a 6.30am start), then three very full days of very soggy lessons on the west coast. Such a shame as it is 18C and very pleasant sunshine here in Elgin at the moment, where I am enjoying an extended lunch-break.

Last week I had 4 new pupils booked and, with a full diary, I was looking forward to the week. Silly me.....
On Thursday, one of the new pupils cancelled at the last minute. This was an omen of the next 24 hours to come. Later in the day I went to meet another new pupil. Her husband had booked her lesson but, when I got there, she decided she did not want a lesson at that moment, but wanted me to help her booking her theory test. Two wasted gaps in my diary.
Potholes are a major problem. Not just in Highlands and Moray, but all over the uk. I teach my pupils to look out for them and avoid them if it is safe to do so. Obvious stuff really, but sometimes my pupils seem oblivious to the fact that they are heading towards one. Not only do they risk damage to my car, but they also risk a loss of control.
The A835 between Inverness and the far NW Highlands has some dreadful potholes. Some are on bends, which pose a particular risk to control. I drive that road several times each week, so I know which stretches of road are particularly bad, but I got badly caught out last Thursday.
Heading home from Ullapool, after a long, lesson-filled day and heavy rain left some large puddles. I avoid the large puddles where it is safe to do so, but oncoming traffic meant I could not avoid one particular puddle. WHAM! I was shocked at the impact. There had obviously been a nasty pothole beneath the water. This was about 15 miles from Ullapool (64 miles from home) and nothing but mountains, rivers, waterfalls and deer for the next 20 miles. I knew there was a lay-by a few miles ahead but, before I had even got there the increasing vibration told me I had a flat tyre. Car manufacturers make sure you are prepared for such an event by providing a spare wheel. Worryingly, it seems to be increasingly common for cars to be 'equipped' with 'space-saver' wheels or, even worse, tyre-inflation kits. Mine has a tyre-inflation kit.
This pathetic piece of equipment is an electric pump, with a canister of foam that is supposed to seal the puncture. Once repaired, you are then advised to drive at a maximum of 50mph to the nearest garage. The nearest garage was 45 miles away and certainly would not be open at 8pm. I would have to hobble home and try to get it repaired first thing the next morning (when I had a full schedule of lessons booked).
It got worse. The puncture was too big for the foam to seal properly so, after I had repaired and inflated the tyre, it was only a couple of miles before I felt the tell-tale vibration again. Merde! (Excuse my French). I had no choice but to call the recovery service, only to find that my car-lease, for some completely unfathomable reason did not cover me (when it quite clearly says on my contract that it does). I spent the next half-an-hour inflating the tyre, driving for a few miles, inflating the tyre, driving for a few miles etc, until the tyre gave up and would not even inflate. No choice but for Jane to drive the 40 miles to collect me. Neither of us were happy.
I got the tyre replaced and the wheel repaired (the whack had been big enough to dent the wheel rim) the next day, but I had had to cancel six hours of lessons. Even less happy.

That evening, I switched on my laptop to update my records and check my emails. Nothing, just an error message saying that there was a fault and the computer could not fix it. Neither could the man from the computer shop the next day. "It is a common problem on Compaqs and Hewlett Packards," he told me. "Not a lot you can do if it is out of warranty." (it is).

Thus, I am in Elgin library, foresaking the wonderful weather outside, checking my emails, updating this blog and looking for a new laptop. It may be that I have to use the library computers to update this blog for a while, but the computer sessions are time-limited, so my posts will probably be shorter than usu