Teachers do not begin the driving lesson with a clipboard. They are trained in classes, parking lots and time of study all the specifics of driving—check my blog. It takes a little psychology, a little performance and a little patience to be an instructor. You are not driving well, you are instructing someone to drive with his hands on the steering like he is in a lifeboat.

The most widespread point of entry of the programs are advanced driving skills. The attitude towards hazards is automatic. By watching you are more alert. The trainees will be reminded of road rules not as a driver, but as a future teacher. When you must right what you get you study it in a new manner. Every move is thought over, every reaction is calculated. Then comes the human side.

One of the learners stops on a green light. Horns blare. Panic rises. The training instructor must also react calmly. Calm voice. Clear instructions. No sarcasm. The practice is safe by role playing. One of the trainees is portraying as a nervous student. The other is the overconfident teenager, who thinks that indicators are not mandatory. It makes it comical–but it makes it life like. Drive of emotion is pounded.

Communication is also the most challenging skill. One can explain easily a three point turn but then it becomes hard when you are required to break it down into steps that anyone can follow. Whoever teaches them gets to know how to issue short and accurate commands: Clutch down. First gear. Slow lift. Look right.” Smart phrases are less important than the timing and perception.

The other significant layer is legal knowledge. The trainees are also taught on the road laws, duty of care and documentation. Bureaucracy may be tedious, but it protects professions. You have been jokingly told by one of the trainers that your pen is as much as your brake pedal. He wasn’t wrong.

The training is on the basis of the supervised teaching hours. The mentors observe the trainees who are in the passenger seat. Feedback is provided at the end of each lesson: it may be gentle, caustic. “You talked too much.” “You missed that hazard.” “You corrected too late.” It is painful–but it acquires practical ability.

Simulators are becoming popular. They recreate rain, pedestrians or a malfunctioning brake. The trainees will be trained to anticipate safety problems in case of the unpredictability of the actual roads. It does not acquire immediate confidence. The majority of the trainees confirm that the first lesson of their training was harder than any driving test. One of the teachers recalled that he had sweated in his shirt: I could drive a car, but how to teach people to use the clutch tore me nearly to pieces.

Business skills appear too. Time keeping, promotion, cancellations and all that. No use to be a good teacher and not have any bills to pay.

By the end, something shifts. You stop having the power to think only when you are a driver, you start thinking when you are a guide. Every crossroad is a learning process. Any failure may be regarded as an opportunity. Habits are developed with a lifetime of driving trainers. It is a large responsibility, but a driving one. Training is ego-sapping, sharpens one, and also teaches moderation. Born amidst the roundabouts of practice, a professional is created: he has it, he is alert, and wants to change the wheel. Change is that which makes the craft really challenging.