Every teen dreams of getting a car. We all want the freedom that comes with being able to go anywhere at any time. In high school, getting a car is basically a rite of passage. However, despite all of us wanting a car, many teens don’t realize the maintenance needed to keep their two ton, token of freedom on the road. From leaky tires to malfunctioning engines, many of us are clueless when it comes to fixing or preventing the simplest of issues. But this generation’s mechanical illiteracy isn’t completely our fault because no one ever taught us anything about cars. With so many new drivers in high school, requiring an auto-mechanical skills class for graduation would provide teens with the skills we need to survive in a car dependent world.
Having a class to teach teens about the inner workings of cars would help us stay safe while driving and during emergencies. Since many of us are new to driving, we don’t know what internal damage feels like when driving. Most of us have no idea how to spot a leaking tire or a damaged engine. When a new quirk pops up in our cars, most teens will assume that they’ll be fine and keep driving. At least, I know some people who do. However, this dismissive behavior can quickly turn deadly. A weird noise can quickly turn into malfunctioning brakes or a jammed steering wheel if left unchecked, leading to panicking teens crashing their cars. A car crash will most likely leave a teen with overwhelming injuries such as broken limbs, head trauma, and internal bleeding, if not something worse. If all teens knew how to watch out for signs of damage, they could get their cars in working condition before hurting themselves in a crash. Knowing that, if a teen notices something is wrong with their car, they may try to fix it themselves. However, since most teens have no mechanical skills, this can lead to teens getting deep cuts, burns from hot metal, or getting themselves crushed. If we had basic knowledge of a car’s inner workings and the correct tools to use, they could prevent injuries from blindly performing maintenance on their vehicle. Therefore, a class teaching students basic auto mechanical skills prevents car related injuries in teens.
Another reason to require a class for teaching mechanical skills is the cost of repairs. Some repairs are routine and are kept relatively cheap; however, these routine costs add up over time. Additionally, some major repairs cost up to tens of thousands of dollars. Ever since gas started to cost an arm and a leg, most teens and even some adults don’t have that much money to spend on car maintenance, which can cause them to take money out of their savings or take out a loan to cover the costs. However, the cost of professional car maintenance can be cut down if new drivers know how to do routine maintenance on their cars. For example, replacing headlight and taillight bulbs, putting air in tires, and changing the oil are all fairly simple tasks to do if someone has the right tools to do them, and doing them at home regularly saves a lot of money over time. Despite the simplicity of these tasks, they’re easy to mess up if the driver doesn’t know what they’re doing, so they need to be taught if someone is going to do them correctly. On top of that, if a teen has the skills to notice that there’s something wrong with their car, they can get their car to an auto mechanic before their small problem becomes a more expensive problem. Therefore, learning auto mechanical skills will save them money in the long run, even if they have to spend a little money in the moment.
Even though people who haven’t been in school for fifty years say that everything a student needs to know about cars and driving is taught in driver’s education, driver’s education is not nearly extensive enough to help teens with mechanical problems. First of all, driver’s education mainly centers on preparing fifteen and sixteen year olds to pass the multiple-choice permit test, so the focus is on lane markings, road signs, and road laws. While there is some content on the inner workings of a car, it’s mostly about the pedals and the steering wheel, not about anything useful. Secondly, most students take driver’s education in their sophomore year of high school, and most people don’t get their first car until they’re in their junior or senior year. The time difference between the class and actually getting a car makes it hard for teens to remember the very small amount of mechanical knowledge they were taught in driver’s education. Finally, driver’s education is not its own class. Instead, it’s a small part of students’ health and physical education class. Students only go to this class a few times a week for a handful of months, which is not enough time to teach both the content in the multiple choice permit test and the mechanical skills necessary to own a car. Therefore, drivers’ education and this hypothetical mechanical skills class are not interchangeable and would need to be separate from each other if they were to benefit students.
In conclusion, a required auto mechanic class would equip teens to be able to function in a world dependent on cars.
