Albert goes to driving school, part II: will the racket pay off?

On the rise of cram schools in Taiwan

(Last week, Albert reflected on driving school, cram schools, test-taking culture in Taiwan, and student anxiety. This is Part 2.)

This wasn’t my first time at a driving school. When I was a junior in college, my uncle in Alabama called me to ask if I’d gotten my driver’s license yet. I hadn’t, I replied. “Ah, well you’ll need one sooner or later,” he said. “I hear the driver’s test in New York is hard. Why don’t you spend the summer here, learn how to drive, and then transfer your driver’s license later?” Alabama it was.

My coach there, a kind elderly Black man, taught me patiently how to merge onto highways and why left turns were dangerous. (To this day, whenever I put on my turn signal, I hear him drawl, Turn your blinkers on, make sure to do a safety check.) Every day for several weeks, I’d get in the car and we’d just drive, taking different highways to different places. The teaching was all about practical driving experience—from the beginning, the instruction focused on actual d…