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"A Family Tradition for 128 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Wednesday, Oct. 12, 1994 - 5 > DORT PLIIY STAR OMMUNITY By JEFF MITCHELL Port Perry Star IT TAKES A large amount of patience and understanding to be a driving instructor. It also helps to have nerves of steel. Just ask Gord Causton, who's been riding beside high school students and other begin- ners for almost 30 years. He recalls one day many years ago, when as a relatively inexperienced instructor, he showed up to take a Toronto woman out for her first lesson - and was joined by a compa- ny representative, there to evaluate his technique. The three got into an automobile and set out down the street. Things were going well until Mr. Causton instructed the woman to turn down a side street. "There are two terrifying things for a per- son who's learning to drive," he said during a recent interview. "Backing up, and making a turn." Mr. Causton's student definitely had the jitters that day. In the midst of her turn she still had not taken her foot of the accelerator. Seeing she was taking the corner too fast, she froze, with her foot still on the gas pedal, and the car vaulted off the street onto the neigh- borhood's manicured grass. "We went across the lawns," he recalled. "She's in the car, screaming at the top of her lungs. And I said to her, 'You're doing a nice job. But do you think you could slow down a little? " The ride of terror continued across lawns until the woman finally found a way to stop the car. Mr. Causton, his supervisor, and the woman sat for a time, contemplating their situation. "I said, 'We really should back off these lawns'," he recalled. " "The people could become annoyed." There was no way the woman, after finally manag- ing to stop the car, wanted to set it in motion again. "I said, 'Lady -- I didn't put the car up here'." Eventually she did remove the car from the lawn, and even managed to drive home. Upon completion of her first lesson, she signed up for more. "You're the bravest SOB I've ever seen in my life." And the instructor said that never again would he tag along with Mr. Causton. But his evaluation came out just fine. "You are the bravest SOB I've ever seen in my life," Mr. Causton remembers him saying. "I was in World Ward 2, and I was never as scared as that." "I said, 'Frank, that's why I make the big bucks.' " 'S IT REALLY NOT the money, though, that attracted Gord Causton to his career. Over the years he has sat in the passenger seat as literally thousands of men, women, and high school students have gone through the paces along streets and high- ways, learning to drive. Since 1979, he has worked in the Durham Region Board of Education's schools teaching driver's educa- tion, first at Brock High School and, since 1985, at Port Perry High School. His work at the local High is over now, as his com- pany opted not to pursue students here when the board threw competition for driver's ed open. He admits to concern about the students and the instruction they will get, but has years of experiences seat with A lifetime In the passenger aS Gord Causton has taught hundreds of area students to drive over the past decade. "I am really glad that I have done this," he said during the course of a couple of interviews recently. "I always feel with kids like it's special for me." Mr. Causton came to be a driving instructor after toiling for some years as a mechanic. He tried it, and found he liked it. It seems he had a knack, especially for dealing with young people, who tended perhaps to be a little more nervous behind the wheel. 'S IT HIS EASY GOING nature that made him succeed in what can be a nerve-wracking job, he said. "I don't ever get excited," he explained. "Some of (the other instructors) couldn't handle it; they didn't have the patience." "My theory is that one person excited in a car is enough. They don't need company." "Learning to drive is a terrifying thing if you have someone who's pushy with you and when you're try- ing to learn, you're not going to do so well." "You need someone to say, I know how you're feeling." When Mr. Causton came to work with the Durham Board of education in 1979, he knew he'd found his niche. He enjoyed the kids, and they felt comfortable with him. He also felt that what he was doing was important. Teenagers and automobiles can be a lethal combina- tion if they're not properly trained. And Mr. Causton noted that with the availability of training young drivers here, there has been a lower incidence of teens killed while driving. "I like to think I had something to do with that," he said. Still, there were some fatalities among his stud- ents, perhaps inevitable. He remembers one who transferred out of Port Perry and was going to school in Oshawa. "He went to school one morning and he was late, and he wasn't wearing a seatbelt," Mr. Causton said. "He was a good kid; I'll always remember him." MR. CAUSTON SPENT ten years at Port Perry High School, teaching the driver's education class to, on average, about 100 kids each year. drivers The course involved both classroom studies and ten hours of on-the-road instruction. during that time he was able with a vast majority of the kids to strike a rapport, and make the course fun for everyone. He learncd that above all, he should always be on the level with them. And if any of the kids had a problem he always said, he was available to lend an ear. "It makes them have a look at what's going on and say, he's human," he said. The kids also learned that they could mess up without their instructor blowing his top. Mr. Causton recalls one kid in the driver's seat who came up to an intersection in Port Perry too fast, and finally came to a halt in the middle, blocking traffic in every direction. After they got on their way again the kid said, "I guess I screwed up, huh?" "Yes," answered the instructor, "but it isn't going to happen again, is it?" "No, sir," said the kid. Ironically, though, Mr. Causton gave up try- ing to teach his daughter to drive after their first session in the car. The messed up a bit and I yelled at her," he said. So, he paid for his daughter's driving lessons. "I believe if she'd gone ten hours with me, she'd have been a nervous wreck," he said. NO y y , IT WOULD seem, Mr. Causton's driving days are over. At 63, he was informed this fall that the Oshawa-based instruction company he worked for would not be pursuing students for its course in Port Perry. "She messed up a bit and | yelled at her" The move is the result of a decision by the provin- cial government to cut off funding for driver's educa- tion; the Durham Board, unable to fund the program itself, made the decision to cut contracted services, and allow driving instruction companies to canvass the region's secondary schools. The companies rent classroom space from the board, and continue to carry out on-the -road training. Scugog public school trustee Bobbie Drew said the decision was made by a cash-strapped board that's under pressure from taxpayers to cut spending. "We never did subsidize it," she explained. "It was the province that provided the funding, and they pulled out." "I think we have to be responsible to the taxpayers as well." She added that driving instruction companies are still welcomed by the board; it's just that now, "it's an open game." "The fact is that there are many avenues open to students to obtain driver training and safe driving skills," she said. "I don't really think it's the board's mandate to do that." Mr. Causton disagrees. "What they did was keep programs that are totally asinine, that had no right to be kept, and slashed driver's ed," he said. "I think the board should review that decision." He's hoping parents will rise up and demand rein- statement of the program -- even inclusion as a credit- earning course. "These people should be madder than hell," he said. "they should be doing something." "It makes me angry that nobody cares enough." "em ee me ® a We wwe es se ws ee ee