16/09/2026
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People often say to me, “I couldn’t do your job, you must have the patience of a saint.”
Trust me, after 22 years of teaching, it’s rarely the learner sitting next to me who tests my patience.
It’s the fully licensed driver behind us behaving as though the learner car has personally ruined their Christmas.
The one six inches from my rear bumper because my learner has dared to approach a roundabout and actually LOOK before going.
The one revving, gesticulating and performing an entire West End production in the driver’s seat because we haven’t launched ourselves into a gap they’ve decided was perfectly acceptable from three cars back.
Learners hesitate sometimes.
Of course they do.
They’re learning.
They don’t yet have twenty years of experience judging speed, distance, gaps and other people’s intentions.
Sometimes they’re nervous.
Sometimes they’re processing several things at once.
Sometimes they’re making their OWN decision about whether it is safe to enter that roundabout.
They may even be on a mock test, where I deliberately sit quietly and allow them to make those decisions without me spoon-feeding them every answer.
That little hesitation you’re furious about might actually be somebody learning one of the most important driving skills of all: judgement.
Ask yourself how you would feel if that learner was your son, daughter, partner, parent or somebody you loved.
Would you want someone sitting inches from their bumper, flashing lights and piling pressure on them while they were trying to learn?
Probably not.
Then we have speed limits.
No, driving instructors are not teaching learners to do 25 because the driver behind has an appointment with destiny.
If the limit is 20, then 20 is the LIMIT, not the opening bid at an auction.
We teach people to drive at an appropriate speed for the road, conditions and hazards, up to the legal limit. We are not going to tell a nervous learner to speed because somebody behind is wearing their steering wheel like a necklace.
Whatever happens during that lesson an awkward roundabout, a stall, hesitation, a difficult meeting situation or a decision they weren’t quite sure about we will work through it.
That is literally what we are there for.
Next time they encounter the same situation, they’ll understand it better.
Then better again.
Eventually the thing that once terrified them becomes something they barely think about.
That is how experience is built.
So when you see a learner, give them some room.
Keep a sensible distance. Don’t intimidate them.
Don’t pressure them into making a decision before they’re ready.
That extra ten seconds you lose really isn’t going to require a missing-person investigation.
Your patience helps.
Driving instructors notice the kind drivers too. We notice the person who hangs back, gives our learner room, lets them finish the manoeuvre and carries on without turning it into an international incident.
Believe me, we see everything in those mirrors. 👀
Today’s learner is tomorrow’s driver sharing the road with you.
Give them the time and space to become a good one. 🙏🏾
Share and tag your friends in please do not copy and paste my posts 💕
Sheena Ahmed
Motorvation school of Motoring
