While my father and brothers taught me the rudiments of working the clutch, accelerator and brakes on our farm 1938 Chev, it was my mum who taught me to drive properly by the time I got to L-Plates at age 17 in Victoria. Weekly trips of a 140km round trip to Hamilton saw me taking our Zephyr Wagon with her giving me great tips on driving in the bush which I've never forgotten. Hamilton's traffic was of a more gentle pace than today's so any city driving was picked up there. So, in the absence of any driving school, some parents in the 1960s were capable of teaching kids. john192 is right; in England I had to learn how to pass the British test rather than how to drive, and afterwards disregard everything they told me. In 1970 they had me reversing around a corner and also parking on the wrong side of the road. When I queried the examiner (after he passed me) why they didn't promote the use of seat-belts, he remarked that safety was nothing to do with him.