The little devil on your shoulder whispered in your ear that you could make it through that yellow light if you just went a little faster. The little angel on your other shoulder told you to slow down and stop. As the officer pulls you over to the side of the road to give you a citation for running the red light, you chastise yourself silently for listening to the wrong advisor.
Your mind starts to race as you think about the consequences of this momentary lapse in judgment. All you can see are dollar signs. The fine for the citation. The court fees. And to make things worse, you can count on a significant hike in your insurance premium as well- unless you go to -(ugh)- traffic school.
In 1994, Michelle Groh-Gordy gave up a career as an award-winning vocational high school and college teacher in Southern California to throw her hat in the ring as an entrepreneur. After 4 years of owning, operating and teaching for her business, The Really Classy and Cheap Comedy Traffic School, she noticed a trend. More and more people were calling asking if she offered an Internet-based traffic school program.
"At that point, I could see that this was going to be a significant new direction for traffic schools," Gordy said. "I figured that I had better get on the train- or get run over by it." So, in 1998, she started developing InterActive! Traffic School (www.trafficinteractive.com), an online traffic safety program.
"I wanted to make it completely different from all of the other programs out there. The other online traffic schools are page after page of reading followed by testing sections. I wanted my program to entertain people while they learned."
Over the years, Gordy has added over 4 dozen flash animated cartoons, learning games and interactive activity screens to her online course,making it the only 100% interactive traffic school on the Internet.
The program introduces students to "Sam" a hip young man whose cantankerous mother-in-law has failed the written driving test at the DMV. Sam has promised his wife that he will help his mother-in-law review the traffic laws before her retest. Through the course of the traffic school program, Sam and Mom travel to destinations such as "Sherlock Manor" where students will play "What's My Driving Line" with Sam and Mom to learn about sharing the road with other vehicles. On another level, students will take a pit stop with Mom and Sam at the "Night Lights Disco" where disc jockey B.G. Signal will teach them everything that they have ever wanted to know about traffic lights- all to the beat of disco music.
"I have had voice-over artists, animators, cartoonists and game designers from literally all over the world work on the content for me," Gordy said. "It's been a gradual process, but I have finally achieved my ultimate goal for the program. A student can go through the entire InterActive! Traffic School course without having to read one boring page of text."
InterActive! Traffic School is approved in most California counties and is now offering unique programs in Florida, Texas, Virginia and Indiana, as well.
So this time, listen to that little angel on your shoulder who's telling you- "So you got a traffic ticket. Get over it and get busy. You can play your way through InterActive! Traffic School and you will have your traffic school requirement out of the way in no time!"
