The Illinois PTA is strongly in favor of the Driver
Education Program in every high school. Driver Education since its
beginning has stressed the need for the development of proper
attitudes, habits and practices in drivers. Since eight out of ten
high school students want to drive, it seems a good investment in
human life to teach them to drive properly. Without completion of
an approved education course, drivers must wait until the age of
18 years to receive a driver's license. School districts are
allowed to charge a fee for the driving portion of a driver's
training to students who can afford to pay.
In 2005
Illinois General Assembly passed PA 94-240, which provides that a
person under 18, who holds a driving instruction permit or
graduated license may not use a wireless phone while driving
except to contact a law enforcement agency or health care
provider/emergency service.
(Illinois PTA Legislation Platform and
Explanation 2005-2007) Item
12-a. Improvement and enforcement of safety laws, and highway and
traffic laws, to protect children and youth. (p.
45)
Effective June 22, 2006, PA 94-0897 strengthens
the Illinois Graduated Driver's License program by increasing the
amount of practice time to 50 hours, including 10 hours of night
driving, young drivers will need before being able to obtain a
driver's license. This new law requires the parent, legal guardian
or other responsible adult to provide written consent at the time
of driver's license application verifying the teen is sufficiently
prepared and able to safely operate a motor
vehicle.
Effective January 1, 2006, PA 94-0241 Each driver
under the age of 18 years and each of the driver's passengers
under age of 19 years (changed from 18) shall wear a safety
belt.
Effective July 1, 2007, An unmarried person under 18
years of age may have their driver's license cancelled or the
Secretary of State's office may refuse to issue a driver's license
or permit to an individual who fails to maintain school
attendance.
Although teenagers make up only six percent of
Illinois drivers, they account for 16 percent of all crash
fatalities. The Graduated Licensing System gets young people who
have proven to be poor drivers off the road and into further
training, and keeps parents more involved in preparing their teens
to drive responsibly.
- Parental or guardian consent required to obtain an
instruction permit.
- Curfew is Sunday through Thursday, 11 p.m.; Friday and
Saturday, 12:01 am. (local curfews may differ)
- Must be enrolled in an approved driver education course and
must pass vision and knowledge tests
- All occupants under age 19 must wear safety belts
- Number of passengers limited to one in the front seat and
the number of seat belts in the back seat
- Practice driving 50 hours, including 10 hours of night
driving, supervised by parent or an adult age 21 or older with a
valid driver's license
- Permit must be held for a minimum of three months
- Permit is valid for up to two years.
Sanctions
- Limit of one court supervision for serious offenses
- Conviction of a serious moving violation results in a
six-month waiting period applying for a driver's license
- Not eligible for a restricted or judicial driving
permit
- Anyone caught driving without a permit will be ineligible to
obtain a driver's license until age 18
Illinois
Graduated Driver Licensing
System
www.sos.state.il.us/departments/drivers/programs/gdl.html.
Mamie
H. Crenshaw, Juvenile Protection & Safety Chairman
********************************************************
The more I talk to other parents about parent involvement,
the more I realize that we need to discuss some personal aspects of
Parent Evolvement. A strong precursor to becoming an involved parent is
accepting the responsibility to grow and
develop personally. These days, just about everyone realizes the
importance of a high self-esteem. Let’s talk
about building your own
self-esteem.
In a nutshell, self-esteem is how you think and feel about
yourself. Now, if you
were raised thinking that you had to be perfect, your self-esteem
is probably shaky, because human beings are notorious for not
being perfect. However, if you were raised by adults who noticed
all the good things you did, and praised you for it, you probably
feel pretty good about yourself today - and rightly so.
Now, building self-esteem in yourself is really very
simple. All it takes
is to do good things and remember that you did them. It's in doing this last
part that most people slip up. I'll bet you already do
enough good things for great self-esteem, but I'll also bet that
you downplay their importance. There’s no better way to
demonstrate to yourself and your children your healthy self-esteem
than being more involved in your children’s
school.
Why not make a list of all the good things you do. Take
note of your moment by moment life - the people you smile at, the
pedestrians you stop for, the friends you support, the favors you
do, the times you laugh at other people's jokes, the relatives
you're nice to. You are really quite a decent human being, aren't
you? So, give
yourself credit for it!
Try this experiment: Carry your list with you, add to it
every day, and review it often. Then, see how your
self-esteem is doing at the end of 30 days. I'll be waiting to hear
about your successes.
Go for Parental Greatness!
R. Jerry Criss -
mrpositive1@aol.com
Illinois
PTA Parent Evolvement and Education Chairman
Here is the
text of our popular movie, "Animal School". The story has
been reproduced from Preparing Our Children for Success, by
Rabbi Z. Greenwald with permission from the copyright holders,
Artscroll/ Mesorah Publications,
LTD.
http://www.raisingsmallsouls.com
Once upon a
time the animals had a school. They had to create a curriculum
that would satisfy everyone, so they chose four subjects: running,
climbing, flying, and swimming. All the animals, of course,
studied all the subjects.
The duck was
very good at swimming, better than the teacher, in fact. He
received passing grades in running and flying, but was hopeless in
climbing, so they made him drop swimming so that he could practice
climbing. After a while he was only average at swimming, but
average is still acceptable, at least in school, and nobody
worried much about it except the
duck.
The eagle was
considered a troublemaker. In his climbing class he beat everybody
to the top of the tree, but he had his own way of getting there
that was against the rules. He always had to stay after school
arid write, "Cheating is wrong," five hundred times. This kept him
from soaring, which he loved, but schoolwork comes
first.
The bear
flunked because they said he was lazy, especially in the winter.
His best time was summer, but school wasn't open
then.
The zebra
played hooky a lot because the ponies made fun of his stripes, and
this made him very sad.
The kangaroo
started out at the top of the racing class, but became discouraged
when he was told to move swiftly on all four legs the way his
classmates did.
The fish quit
school because he was bored. To him, all four subjects were the
same, but nobody understood that because they had never seen a
fish.
The squirrel
got an A in climbing, but his flying teacher made him start from
the ground up, instead of from the treetop down. His legs got so
sore practicing takeoffs that he began getting Cs in climbing and
Os in running.
The bee was
the biggest problem of all, so the teacher sent him to Doctor Owl
for testing. Doctor Owl said that the bee's wings were too small
for flying and they were in the wrong place. The bee never saw
Doctor Owl's report, so he just went ahead and flew anyway. I
think I know a bee or two, how about
you?
The duck is the child who does well in math
and poorly in English and is given tutorials by the English
teacher while his classmates are doing math. He loses his edge in
math, and only does passably well in
English.
