Ron Dubach (pronounced doo-baw) has been teaching driver's education for 28 years. In the winter he also teaches elementary physical education.
He had some very specific goals for us, which he stated clearly in the first class. "I have three action goals for you," he said, "besides becoming better drivers. If I can get you to put on seatbelts, stay away from motorcycles, and never mix drinking with driving, I can save your life."
For class each day we always had a test, and always one of the students would ask him what the date was. The date, then, "all day long, never been lived in before," was always his answer.
After class on July 1st, another student asked why Mr. Dubach made his 'personal, intelligent decision' (his words from the lecture) to never drink alcohol. I got down a good 2/3 of his answer.
I don't like what I see alcohol do. I don't like what it did to my mother's family, I don't like what it did to my father's family, I don't like what I saw it do to my uncle over the years. There was a time when I didn't have the money, so I didn't buy it. I also belong to a church that looks upon alcohol as negative. And all these put in a bag was weighty enough that I chose never to drink.
At an earlier point in the same class, in the middle of his lecture on alcohol, Mr. Dubach said "I do not drink, I have never drunk, and I never will drink."
Q. How did you first get started teaching driver's ed.?
A. After my first year of teaching, the pay was reduced to six dollars an hour and others weren't willing to work for that much. But I was a young teacher who was willing to take on the work and do my best. So that's how I got in, being willing when others weren't, but I also have the credentials and took the class to teach driver's ed.
Q. You've said you don't like to drive. Do you like teaching driver's ed.?
A. Yeah, yeah I do. [But] I don't like to drive long distances.
Q. What is the most interesting thing about teaching driver's ed.?
A. Seeing people put seatbelts on, seeing young drivers put on seatbelts, become safer drivers. To see unsafe attitudes change to safe ones. That's the most interesting thing.
Q. You've been teaching driver's ed. for a long time, you have a lot of experience, and you've shared some interesting stories in class. But can you think of anything funny that's happened while in a driver education car?
A. Uh, nothing comes to mind.... Little incidental things that break up the monotony, like Andrea and her crows. Little things. {The crows comment refers to an earlier incident when the interviewer was in the driver education car with Mr. Dubach and another student, Andrea Gurke, was driving. She saw some tire marks on the pavement and remarked about the 'crows' that were crossing the road. We still tease her about it.}
Q. So there are little things that make teaching driver's fun. But is it sometimes scary?
A. It is. Just to, there is a level of danger, but part of the trick is to keep the danger away, and minimize it. On a graduated plain, the student gets better. The student can't deal with high levels of risk right away. Each day you build the risk, you build the confidence, and you build the skill, as the difficulty level expands.
Q. What do you do in your spare time that might surprise your students?
A. I cut fire wood, research stock, buy and sell stock, exercise and work out, do some church work, in my spare time.
None of that would surprise your students.
No, probably not.
