Douglas's first lesson

I had heard a lot about Douglas from his sister and was expecting a conceited young student based on her stories.  She wasn't close to him because he had always tried to put her down in a sibling rivalry way without any intentional cruelty.

On meeting Douglas for the first time my estimate had not been far off except that I hadn't expected him to be so tall and self assured. 

We had the usual talk about why he was starting to drive now, what he wanted to get from lessons and if he had a preference for any type of teaching style.  He casually informed me that it didn't matter how he was taught because he picked everything up easily.
I asked him how he would feel if he didn't find the lessons as easy as he expected.  He looked at me with one raised eyebrow and laughed.  This would NEVER happen.
"I suppose that seemed really arrogant", he said, "..that's probably because I am.  Not to be funny but I think I am justified because I am good at everything."

I actually began to like him from this moment.  Yes he was arrogant but he was also honest about it and accepted that that was the way he was.  We talked about what he was good at and it did sound as though he was right.

Fantastic grades all through a top school and a top University, accepted to study Law at Birmingham Law School, played sports at a county level, tall and lithe and probably very good looking to girls of his age.  He admitted to never having had to put any effort into learning at all.  Life was so easy for him.

So... how did he get on with the driving?

We didn't do a lot of driving on the first lesson because he was trying to discover how the clutch worked.  He played around with it and realised if he brought it up too fast then the car would stall.  The problem is that his fine foot control was not very good and so he kept stalling, swearing and growling at himself.

He was not at all happy that he couldn't master this new skill in a one hour lesson.  However, even though he got very annoyed with himself, he never once showed any negative emotion towards me and he had impeccable manners and his sense of humour still came through.

A very complex young man who I am looking forward to working with but there is the worry that he may not come back after his lack of immediate success.