Alfred King . . . Teacher of safety education

Biographical sketch of Alfred King. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.

The citation for this article is: "Alfred King . . . Teacher of safety education," Pieces of Eight, December 1, 1985.

---

Alfred King, coordinator of driver and safety education, had been a school adminstrator for 13 years when he fell in love with teaching.

After receiving his master's degree in school administration from Florida State University, he worked as a principal at a junior high school in Florida. His interest was piqued by the quality of the teachers and the enthusiasm of the students in the driver-education program. "That really got me charged up for driver-ed," he said.

To follow through on his newly found love in teaching, King accepted a position at Michigan State University's Highway Traffic Safety Center and while there, earned his PhD in driver-education. After three years at MSU, he accepted the challenge of developing East Carolina University's programs.

Beginning in 1972, he developed an undergraduate major certification program for driver-education teachers. Two years later, the UNC Board of Governors approved the undergraduate program and in 1976, the graduate program. King also organized and teaches the only motorcycle training class in the state.

Concerned About Education

King says that he is in an unusual situation because "people think that since I'm in driver-education, I'm really not an educator. But I am very much concerned about education.

"I am a member of Phi Delta Kappa and stay current on what is going on, especially in teaching techniques, learning and testing. I deal heavily with communicative and writing skills in my classes. My evaluations reflect those things."

King has definite ideas on testing and grades. "There's no great predictive value from any tests that I know of," he said. Grades are artificial goals. Studetns are not graded on the things that will affect them most after college -- like accepting responsibility, self-discipline and making decisions. I try to develop teachers with those abilities. A driver-ed teacher will learn more in his first five years about what and how he should be teaching than he'll ever learn at a university. What we need to do is make sure he has the ability to perform, then give him a good start.

"While we are primarily in the business of producing driver education teachers for the public schools," said King, "we also contribute to the safety education of elementary school teachers in the areas of school bus, bicycle and pedestrian safety."

Favors Seat Belts

Keenly aware of improvements in highway safety, King has praises for North Carolina's new seat belt law.

"I think it's great that we finaly had a legislature courageous enough to fight the battle. I believe that statistics are going to show a dramatic reduction in the number of serious and fatal injuries because of the law," King says.

The only drawback he sees is that the law will not be enforced for more than a year. King believes the safest device is the air bag, but says, "You'll still have to wear a lap belt or you might not hit the bag."

King says drinking and driving is the major problem on our highways. "As long as alcohol is out ther, people are going to drink and drive; it cannot be eliminated." But through education, it can be alleviated, he says. "We have to just keep pounding away and hope we get the message across." He also believes that the law which will return the "drinking" age in North Carolina to 21 will have a positive effect.

Statewide Safety Education

"What we really need and what I'm pushing for right now is a statewide safety education program for motorcycle and ATV (all-terrain-vehicles) operators. We don't have anything for them now," he says.

King is writing a request for a grant that would begin the process of establishing such a program.

A member of the executive committee of the technical coordinating committee of the statewide Institute for Transportation Research and Education based at UNC-CH, King is also an active member in the North Carolina Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association.

King is a member of and gives many presentations at meetings for the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association in Washington. He is co-chairman of the higher education program for the 1986 ADTSEA conference that will be held in Minneapolis. He is also a member and past chairman of the Greenville City Recreation and Parks Commission and a member and past president of the Pitt County Safety Council.

A Small Staff

King and his staff of seven, which includes four graduate students, teach between 175 and 225 students a semester. "We are small and we want to stay small," King says. "We could double our enrollment within a year just by offering more of the elective motorcycle and basic courses, but we're here for the purpose of turning out educators, I want every student to have the opportunity to get a job."

While he appreciates many of the cultural events that take place on campus, most of his spare time is spent either playing tennis or watching sports. "I actively support all of ECU's athletic programs, if not financially, just by showing up. I like to see any kind of athletic event," he said.

King and his wife Betsy, an elementary school teacher, have been married for 25 years and have two sons.