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This deceptively simple film works on several levels at once. It's ostensibly about "one of the most interesting and important experiments in driver education today" -- the insane K through 3 driver ed courses at Garfield Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona -- but it's really about the older generation desperately trying to program reckless driving (i.e. rebellion) out of their kids.
Throughout this film, while happy, childlike music plays underneath, Jimmy S. talks about "good citizenship behind the steering wheel" and "courtesy," "self-control," "good sportsmanship," "respect for the rights of others," "good driving attitudes," a "code of driving ethics," and "the need for rules and regulations." "At a most impressionable time of life," Jimmy explains, "an important rule of society is learned laws are meant not to restrict, but to protect." Whoa...and you thought this was a film about driver education! Beyond this level, one wonders how much of what we see in this film is actually real, and how much was merely staged by Chevrolet.
This film leaves little doubt that the kute kids in their kiddie kars are only a convenient metaphor for older drivers, as the tots reenact bad driving situations while Jimmy moans about "a few childish, inconsiderate drivers" and tells us "bad driving habits are childish." Think about it -- what possible good does it do to teach driving to a six-year-old?
The method this film uses to convince us that the kids really are learning about driving is even more bizarre; we see children playing musical chairs, only "the familiar games of kindergarten have been modernized to teach a life-saving lesson the meaning of Stop and Go." In practice the kids hold little fake steering wheels in their hands and have to lunge for a chair when another kid pivots a "Go" sign so that it says "Stop." Even more nutty is the "Phoenix Link Trainer," a pedal-propelled kiddie car that the youngsters maneuver in a parking lot. Jimmy imbues this with all manner of significance. We see a kid dressed in coveralls peering under the hood (at what, the pedals?) and we see "hot rodders" sitting glumly on a bench, their driving privileges revoked. "Traffic violators get tickets and are brought to trial before a jury of their classmates."
All this is mere prelude to the second half of the film, where we see the teens. A girl sits in a Chevrolet ("a fine, modern car") for driving training, but it will be a snap since she's been learning "since childhood." Oh? Are we to believe the stuff in this film has been going on since 1938? We see a "hot rod club" where "the boys themselves will drop a member for even a minor traffic violation." Then we see a "juvenile lawbreaker" get sent to "attitude school"(!) where he is exposed to "scientific tests" and which seems populated to a suspicious degree by photogenic, fresh-faced girls. The boy gets his license back and in the very next shot we see him in a suit and tie, holding the car door open for his date!
Only in America could driver education be sold as a linchpin of social adjustment.
Producer Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor Chevrolet Division, General Motors Corporation
Throughout this film, while happy, childlike music plays underneath, Jimmy S. talks about "good citizenship behind the steering wheel" and "courtesy," "self-control," "good sportsmanship," "respect for the rights of others," "good driving attitudes," a "code of driving ethics," and "the need for rules and regulations." "At a most impressionable time of life," Jimmy explains, "an important rule of society is learned laws are meant not to restrict, but to protect." Whoa...and you thought this was a film about driver education! Beyond this level, one wonders how much of what we see in this film is actually real, and how much was merely staged by Chevrolet.
This film leaves little doubt that the kute kids in their kiddie kars are only a convenient metaphor for older drivers, as the tots reenact bad driving situations while Jimmy moans about "a few childish, inconsiderate drivers" and tells us "bad driving habits are childish." Think about it -- what possible good does it do to teach driving to a six-year-old?
The method this film uses to convince us that the kids really are learning about driving is even more bizarre; we see children playing musical chairs, only "the familiar games of kindergarten have been modernized to teach a life-saving lesson the meaning of Stop and Go." In practice the kids hold little fake steering wheels in their hands and have to lunge for a chair when another kid pivots a "Go" sign so that it says "Stop." Even more nutty is the "Phoenix Link Trainer," a pedal-propelled kiddie car that the youngsters maneuver in a parking lot. Jimmy imbues this with all manner of significance. We see a kid dressed in coveralls peering under the hood (at what, the pedals?) and we see "hot rodders" sitting glumly on a bench, their driving privileges revoked. "Traffic violators get tickets and are brought to trial before a jury of their classmates."
All this is mere prelude to the second half of the film, where we see the teens. A girl sits in a Chevrolet ("a fine, modern car") for driving training, but it will be a snap since she's been learning "since childhood." Oh? Are we to believe the stuff in this film has been going on since 1938? We see a "hot rod club" where "the boys themselves will drop a member for even a minor traffic violation." Then we see a "juvenile lawbreaker" get sent to "attitude school"(!) where he is exposed to "scientific tests" and which seems populated to a suspicious degree by photogenic, fresh-faced girls. The boy gets his license back and in the very next shot we see him in a suit and tie, holding the car door open for his date!
Only in America could driver education be sold as a linchpin of social adjustment.
Producer Handy (Jam) Organization
Sponsor Chevrolet Division, General Motors Corporation