The Bravest Man I know

Aaron Shown is one of the bravest men I know. Not only does he teach science at Scio High school — an act of heroism in itself — but he also teaches teen-agers how to drive.

The man must have ice water in his veins. During the past six years, he’s spent more than 1,000 hours riding with teen-age drivers. I’ve helped teach two of our kids how to drive and my blood pressure would spike every time one of them got behind the wheel. Sometimes, I felt as though I should ask for a cigarette and a blindfold.

Our oldest son, Paul, was by far the hardest case. While he was learning, he managed to hit the side of the garage — “How did that get there?” was his comment as he got out of the car. And he managed to pin a shopping cart between the car and the side of a store.

He eventually became an excellent driver, thanks in large part to a driver education class like the one Shown teaches.

Just imagine 30 kids like Paul in a single class and you’ll get an idea of what a day at the office is like for Shown.

My 17-year-old son Peter was one of 30 kids Shown taught to drive through Chemeketa Community College during the summer. In addition to the 30-plus hours of classroom time, that’s a total of 180 hours on the road with the area’s least-experienced drivers.

I asked him if he’d ever had a problem with one of his young students.

“I’ve had a few close calls, and I’ve had to use the brake,” he said, referring to the special passenger-side brake in the car. “But nothing serious.”

I recently rode as an observer during Peter’s last on-the-road lesson with Shown. We drove from Sublimity on Highway 22, onto Interstate 5 to Keizer and then back to and around Stayton. The trip was uneventful — thank goodness! — but one exercise Shown had me do was a real eye-opener.

During the trip, I had a checklist and marked down every time I saw another driver mess up.

I ran out of space for writing down the number of cars that were speeding. If you ever want your head to spin, try driving 55 mph on Highway 22 and counting the number of cars that whiz past you.

And tailgating? Nearly everyone does it. Likewise for changing lanes without signaling.

Sometimes it seemed as though the only driver following the rules of the road was Peter.

In short, Mr. and Ms. Driving Public, you have a long way to go before you’d pass one of Shown’s classes.

During the drive, Shown carefully coached Peter as he maneuvered through traffic, reminding him to check his mirrors, look over his shoulder before changing lanes and accelerate to keep up with traffic when merging.

About the time I would have been ready to jump out of the car, Shown was still cool as a cucumber.

Peter is not a perfect driver, but he’s certainly better than the average driver on Highway 22 and far better than if I was his only teacher.

Thanks to Shown and the driver education classes he and others teach, hundreds of the area’s young drivers are safer.

Knowing that allows me and a lot of other parents to sleep better at night.