Arriving Early

I'm only going to get into this experience versus trainer thing once and I will not be dragged into it after this:

Firstly, I haven't been driving for less than a year. I've been driving for less than 2 years. That may not mean much more to you or anyone else, but let's get the facts straight.

Secondly, I may have minimal experience, but I had three trainers in my time as a student. The first two were very experienced, but HORRIBLE teachers. I learned NOTHING from them. The third had only a couple years experience (like me) but was a FANTASTIC teacher. I learned more from him than anyone else. So, it's not just the experience that makes the trainer, it's his ability to teach.

As for my ability to teach, I have been a teacher of many things, ONE of them was how to control air traffic! If I can teach that and never had a trainee wash out, I am pretty sure I'm capable of doing a fair job at this. For another, I have a teacher for a wife who has been helping me greatly in creating lesson plans, identifying different types of learning and adjusting my methods of teaching to cope, and more.

So, please, just because I'm 26 and only a few years experience, don't discount me. And by the way, those pilots and controllers whose hands who you put your lives into every time you fly are likely YOUNGER than ME and are actually INSTRUCTING ON THE JOB to someone even younger than them!

By the commonly held idea that you have to have a lot of experience to be a good teacher, you are saying that 27 year old Ms. Maria could not possibly be a better teacher than 60 year old Ms. Lumpkin back in junior high or high school? Think real hard. The names might not mean anything to you, but replace them with a teacher from back in your school days and realize that age and experience aren't everything.

So, that's all I have to say about the experience/age thing. Get over the fact that age and experience are not the only things that make a good trainer. That's the old fashioned way of thinking.

Of course I'm not going to bombard them with all this on the first day. That's just ridiculous. Of course I'd ease them in. That's why they live on the truck with me for almost 2 months.

Really? Driving skills? You do realize that the majority of trucking successfully is NOT driving, right? Any fool can put the pedal to the floor and stare out a window for 11 hours a day. Success is in planning, managing, and adapting to changes. That is why so many drivers fail to deliver on time. They were not taught the paper side of trucking; just how to move the truck.

So, of course I will teach them how to drive the truck. That's the easy part! But doing it efficiently and legally is the hard part. Thus, flowcharts, lesson plans, and whatever other "formula" I come up with.

By naturally, you mean after the student has left my truck with me teaching him/her only how to drive? They'll learn planning "the hard way"? Maybe...maybe they won't. Maybe they won't figure it out "naturally" and end up leaving a good paying job with benefits?

No thanks. I'll teach them what I did have to learn naturally--the hard way--so that they can be successful and happy.

And simply put, I think you're ideology of trucking is all wrong. It's over-simplified, and old-fashioned. But to each his own.

 

...sigh...no, wish I did!