Name: Miya Walker
From: Euless, Texas
Votes: 0
We Have a Responsibility
As a fifth grader I wrote a poem about the anxiety of a sixteen year old girl taking her driver’s test. She was driving and imagined herself propelling herself and the car’s occupants off the edge of a cliff. I’m now seventeen years old, and I’ve since carried the weight of that imaginary scenario on my shoulders. Over the years that fear has been supplemented by the countless drivers ed videos, television shows, and other media outlets detailing the tragic aftermath of car crashes.
While I’ve never experienced those disastrous effects first hand, my friends have. Police reports and insurance companies always seek to objectively name the driver at fault, but I can’t help but place blame on the persistent culture of recklessness among my peers. In the age where trauma can be glamorized and negatively spontaneous actions can get people quadruple the amount of clicks, there needs to be a cultural shift that renews the value of safety among young people.
Experience is said to be the best teacher, but how do we teach teens to go against what they’re seeing some of their favorite influencers do? The loss of life and property are not and should not be sufficient in finally teaching one another the consequences of actions. Drivers ed gives people the foundation to build that responsibility on the road, but social education must be continued far beyond the end of a month-long course. I pledge to keep myself and peers accountable to avoid having to learn from mistakes that determine life or death.
Just like other fields, drivers ed truly never ends. There are some things that are hard to teach in classroom settings, but I am thankful for the exploration of the dangers of driving in these courses. Drivers ed has made myself and so many of my peers come to terms with the reality of driving. We see so many films showcasing the luxury of driving without acknowledging the possible repercussions, and widespread drivers ed has significantly filled that gap in young drivers’ minds. Thanks to drivers ed, the conversation on roadside safety has been started, but it’s up to us students to continue it.
