Friday, November 05, 2010

Good Job Sara!

So we have been on Sara to get her driving license for a while now. She didn't pass the written test and after that she just seemed uninterested. I think she figured if she didn't pass she never would. Finally today she took the exam and passed it! I was so excited until Stephen text to say he met her at the tag office to pay the $26 for the permit. The rules have changed so much since I was 16. At age 15 and 1/2  I took drivers ed, but it was an elective at school. The school had a vehicle and during one of your elective classes you studied then after a couple weeks we took turns driving. However when Steven (Sara's brother) took drivers ed I had to pay $150 and drop him off at school at 6am, now more recently and at a different school, when Sara took drivers ed it was $50 and she had to take it during the summer. Even though it was a better deal at Sara's school and I didn't have to get up and drive her to the school, I wonder what happened that the school no longer offers this as an actual class during school.

At the tag office today it turns out the fees for a permit have shot up from $26 to $49.50. As if that wasn't enough of a let down, they also informed Sara that she has to wait 6 months to take the driving portion of  the exam and she has to have some one 21 years of age or older in the car while she drives. Even a few years ago Steven only had to wait 30 days and the co-driver only had to be 18. I was really disapointed about the changes. Mostly because Luke has the car that we really want Sara to practice drivng in, he leaves for work at 3pm and Stephen and I don't get home until after 4pm. This means the car isnt here for us to take her driving in and Luke can't take her because he isn't 21.

People can say what they want about statistics and accadents and all that, but does the people in charge of making these rules take into consideration that some of us have a life that don't revaulve around getting our 16 year olds on the road? Do they have any clue how helpfull it is to working parents to be able to send their teenager for milk or to pick up their siblings? As a parent I worry about my children any time they are not in my sight, however I also love being able to depend on them to do random task for me. I can honestly say that since having Luke live in the house I take advantage of his ability to drive and do some of the running around that we can't seem to get to sometimes.

I personally drove around with my 18 year old brother who was the most irresponsible person I have ever known. I did fine, he got home safe when he was drinking and there was never an issue. I also only waited 30 days after my written exam to take the driving exam. I don't understand the changes at all. To me it just seems like more work for the parents than anything.

With all that said, I am super proud of Sara! She really was reluctant to take the test because she has a really hard time with comprehending what she is reading, she may know the answers to the questions if you ask her verbaly but when the question is written she seems to go blank. One of the exminers told me that if I would bring her up there as soon as they open he would take a written version of the test ( most people take the test on a computer) and go into a room with Sara and verbally give her the test. When I attempted to do this the man who told me this wasn't there and the woman refused to do it, she said the office was to busy and that her verbal test was no different than having a computer read the questions. However it is different, a person verbally asking you the questions can ask the question in a different form so that you can better understand what it is they want to know. I am posative about this because the school has done this for Sara for a couple of years now. However with a reluctant examiner Sara had to figure out how to pass the test on the computer. Good Job Sara!!

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