“I hit three curbs on my way to school today!” Says the girl who got in an accident a couple of months ago. “I got up to 95 on the freeway this morning,” Says the guy who got a ticket the other week. “They were going too slow so I just got around them and cut them off,” Says the driver who has never learned to be patient. While many may view these sentences as normal, they are clear signs of someone who has never been to driving school.

Driving school is a very important procedure for a new driver to go through, and is the best method when learning to drive. While parents may think that they know enough about the road to teach their children, they are not trained professionals who teach driving for a living. Classes are fundamental in teaching young and learning drivers about what to do, especially in scenarios that may not be encountered while just driving with a parent.

For teenagers, it is often easy to tell which friends have been through driving school and which ones have not. Whether it is the stories they tell about their driving or even the experience of driving with them, it is often not shocking to hear that they didn’t get the proper amount of training before receiving their license.

In Arizona, it is becoming too easy to get a license, with many DMVs just giving them out. 94% of drivers in Arizona pass their license test, which is the third highest pass rate in the nation. While some may argue that Arizona drivers are particularly skilled, many other state drivers will disagree.

Drivers from other states often view Arizona’s driving as fast and dangerous in contrast to their own states. In fact, Arizona has over 125,000 car accidents per year, many of which could have been easily avoided.

Driving school doesn’t just teach drivers how to use their blinkers and stay in the lines, it also teaches patience and awareness. It is important to know how to stay calm in traffic, or while moving behind a slow driver. Awareness is also very important when wanting to avoid an accident, and knowing how to maneuver a potentially dangerous situation can save lives.

While some may view it as a waste of time, money, or both, driving school is extremely important for new drivers to take. At the end of the day, it is not just their own life that driving school could be saving.