In high school, having grown up near Salt Lake City, driver's education was taught as a class during the normal school day. From what I understand now other parts of the country don't typically teach driver's ed during the school day. And, as someone working in education reform, I'm frankly quite disgusted with the idea that part of the school day is used to teach something so wholly unrelated to college readiness, or even just toward being a well rounded person. But, Salt Lake City also has seminary class as part of the normal school day which might be fine if they taught multiple religions but of course they don't. You want to take seminary you have one religion to choose from and guess which one. But, I digress. My point is this - in my high school driver's ed class I learned something that I've applied to my life and not just my driving habits and that is the IPDE process.
There are many people who may not recall/were never taught this very valuable life lesson so I would like to remind/educate those people now.
I - Identify
P - Predict
D - Determine
E - Execute
That is, one should
identify a possible situation,
predict any possible outcomes,
determine an action, and
execute accordingly.
In driving this applies to potential road hazards, merging onto the freeway, changing lanes, potholes, etc. In life this applies to confrontations, discussions, job applications, friendships, etc. In the 14 years since my enlightenment I've found that this simple procedure saves time and lives, which may mean that driver's ed taught in high school has at least one redeeming quality.
IPDE - learn it, love it, live by it.
