Students looking for an interesting class to take
this summer may want to consider signing up for
driver’s education.
Harvey LaCount, the instructor for FAMU’s driver and
traffic safety class, said the course isn’t the
typical driver’s education class from high school.
“I know all of you can drive,” LaCount told his
class last Wednesday morning. “I’m going to take you on the
range and I’m going to teach you how to teach students
to drive.”
On the driving range, students found themselves in
the familiar territory of their driver’s ed classes
from high school. They must complete all the tasks
from before – including parallel parking, the figure
eight maneuver and the three-point turn about – only
this time they learned how to teach high school
students the same techniques.
Derdra Hampton, 22, an education student from Miami,
said being certified to teach driver’s education could
bring in extra money for her after she graduates.
“It could be like something on the side for me,” said
Hampton, who plans to teach elementary education.
But while the class is one of three required courses
that certify students to become driver’s education
instructors, the course isn’t just for education
students.
For students like Johnese Price, 19, a nursing
student from Jacksonville,Fla., the class was a good
opportunity to boost her grade point average.
“I heard it was a good class to take if you want to
get an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ in a class,” Price said.
LaCount said students in the class are responsible
for knowing a variety of information related to
driving, including exams on car insurance and how it
is computed.
“The insurance component of driver’s education has to
do with the consumer side of driver’s education,”
LaCount said.
In addition to knowing about car insurance, students
must also teach their fellow students about the
driving information in their textbooks – “Responsible
Driving” by Glencoe and the American Automobile
Association-in which LaCount is featured.
“We don’t just drive. We do English. We do math,”
LaCount said. “We do more than just teach a person how
to drive an automobile.”
Tanya Caldwell can be reached at tanya_caldwell@yahoo.com.