In New Jersey, the minimum age to acquire a probationary driver’s license is 17 years old, along with a prerequisite six months of driving with a learner’s permit. Some students choose, however, to exercise their freedom to attain their license when it is right for them.

Guidance counselor Sandra Gidos cited delayed licenses as a generational difference. When she was in high school, she said, it was customary to receive their driver’s license on their seventeenth birthday. 

“I was on the younger age of my class and did not turn seventeen until December of my senior year. At that time, I was one of the last seniors obtaining my license, so I couldn’t wait to obtain it on my 17th birthday,” Gidos said. “I wouldn’t call it a stigma, but perhaps a need or a desire.” 

Gidos recalled many members of her generation being set on acquiring their licenses the moment they turned seventeen. Today’s teenagers have shown that waiting could be the right thing to do for them. 

For some, the lack of a driver’s education course integrated into the curriculum at CHS has left an impact on their ability to acquire their license. Senior Joseph Matthews of Middletown has not gotten his license as of yet, citing a lack of free time as his main reason.

“I know home schools have it as a required class, and if we had had it, I would have gotten started on the whole [process] sooner, as opposed to the optional after school class,” he said.

Sometimes, students simply freeze up behind the wheel.

“I was very nervous from the get-go…. [driving] didn’t really come natural to me at first,” said senior Ryan Swanson of Brielle, who received his license nearly a year after his 17th birthday. 

Truthfully, learning to drive is a process that involves the support of many people. When asked what pushed him to finally get behind the wheel, he said it was, “Definitely my parents telling me, ‘It’s a fact of life, you need to know how to drive.’” he said. “It was really them forcing me to do it, and I’m really glad that they did that.”