Driver's Ed

Back before Driver's Ed was something that parents had to pay $300 and up for, it was offered for free as a one credit course in high school. Yeah, free.

New cars were loaned to the school system by local dealerships in exchange for the cheap advertising they got from the cars being driven around with big signs on their sides and backs.

The instructors were high school teachers who got a couple of hundred dollars each semester in addition to their salaries for their normal course instruction. Ours were the the wood and metal shop teachers, two guys who were't surprised when a student screwed up while operating a machine.

One of the class requirements, usually scheduled for just before lunch, was to watch a series of really weird, gory movies that were supposed to drive home the point to the students that they could avoid becoming roadkill by following traffic rules, but usually just caused a couple of the kids in each class to either puke or faint and fall out of their seats, or puke then faint and fall out of their seats. The janitor was always close at hand with a canister of that schoolbus vomit absorbant stuff, and the school nurse was there to see that the unlucky were brought back to consciousness. Then there were those who were just plain grossed out and, of course, the very few who sat in rapt attention. If the group was lucky, the class clown was there to provide comic relief (and then get a smack in the back of the head from the teacher for his efforts, which, as always, was pretty funny in itself and a welcomed distraction from the films.)

For a look at a two-part classic of these creepy "educational" films, go here and here. For another, go here, and see some seriously wooden acting to accompany the yuck factor.

Warning: Real gore, real moans and screams, no seatbelts, no airbags, no SteadyCam, bad B-movie soundtracks and some very unlucky cows.