Emma Fischer | Feature Editor

Junior Fernando Morales turned sixteen over a year ago, but even though he’s now an upperclassman, and has hit that magical number, there is one thing that he has not done: gotten a driver’s license.

“I have not had the time to learn how to drive or take a class for it,” Morales said.

Morales is in band, and with all the time taken up to learn the marching shows and the hours spent on SmartMusic, there is little free time that he doesn’t want to give up.

“I’m just so busy. With all the schoolwork and band, I’ve not gotten a lot of time, free time. I kind of want to do things that are not as productive in that time,” Morales said.

Being more involved with school has caused students to push driving to the side because of the limited time they have to spend.

“With my free time, I want to spend it with friends, not in more school,” sophomore Sabrina Fortunatti said.

Students aren’t the only ones that are busy.

“My parents never had the time to teach me,” sophomore Brandon Meitzen said.

To go to driving school, or taking it after school also involves a ride home, and the parents or siblings must provide that. This gives a drawback to the classroom course, which is why online courses are becoming more popular.

“[An] Online course is better for me so then I can complete it on my own time and not have to worry about missing class or the class schedule. It gives more free time,” Morales said.

There are drawbacks to online courses, however.

“I’d rather be in a classroom learning because if you’re online, it’s possible to look up the answers and not learn anything, but when you’re in the classroom, you are kind of forced to learn it and taught by a real person,” Meitzen said.

With everything being piled on top of everything already going on, driving is an important thing to learn for young teens.

“It’s so important for kids to learn how to drive so then they can drive themselves to places and the parents don’t have to worry about it,” Morales said.