The Driver Education course is intended to provide a foundation of knowledge, attitudes, habits, and basic skills necessary for growth and development of safe, efficient new drivers. Inherent in the school's responsibility to provide this background is the greater responsibility to instill safety habits and attitudes. The experiences from which young people will learn to make traffic decisions will come from the home, the school, and the community. More often than not young people learn more from what they observe and experience, than from what they are told. It is important, therefore, that the driver instructor utilize all available resources to ensure the program is as experiential for the students as possible. It is also important that parents be apprised of the major role which they must play in developing proper attitudes, behaviour, and skills in the students related to driver and traffic safety, in order to complement the endeavours of the instructor. Hopefully, through closer cooperation between school officials and parents, a reduction in the toll of accidents, injuries, and deaths involving young people on the highways of this province will be realized.

The philosophy of the Driver Education course implies a number of strategies:

• The classroom course is seen as a medium to support and extend the in-car portion of the program. Behaviour, knowledge, and attitudes (in the form of teaching points) are to be measured against their effect on actual driving. The course is to be viewed as highly practical, rather than as a strictly academic experience for new drivers.
• Driving is a task about which students have considerable knowledge, either based upon their experience as passengers or as drivers, both on and off the highway. In this course, every effort will be made to recognize and respect this existing knowledge.
• A suitable teaching style to meet the goals of the course is that used in adult education. That is, considerable input is solicited from the students and the process of instruction is one of guiding, filling in the gaps, and setting a climate for self-discovery.
• The instructor/teacher must specify precisely what the driver should do, rather than just giving feedback when something is wrong or indulging in vague generalizations. For example, instilling a proper attitude toward not driving too fast takes guidance and practice.
• The course should be fun and interesting with predominant use of the workshop/activity format rather than a lecture format.
• It is important to encourage parents to assist in the development and continuation of a new driver's education, particularly in the first six months to a year of driving.
• It is critical to teach the right habits in the right order. There is a possibility of "setting" or "imprinting" the habits of a lifetime, so that drivers feel guilty if they do not do what they know they should.
• Learning does not end at the granting of a licence. The point at which a new driver is capable of doing emergency driving is still undetermined.