Yeah, that and traveling-- I’ve been to some countries outside the US that didn’t rent automatics, at least at the cheapest dealer I could find. They’re also better for snow conditions, and there are at least 2 times I can remember that I almost definitely would have had a collision had I not been driving a stick (only one of which was my fault).
There are just enough cases that make it a very useful skill. Not to say that there aren’t plenty of useful skills that I haven’t learned 
Don’t be my father-in-law. He’s a wonderful, sweet man. Still.
My husband’s father would suddenly raise his foot up to the dashboard, stomp on it, and yell, “STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!” at the drop of a hat. His brother says he was once driving with him, and going through a right turn into continuous lane, (I think that’s the right word…late here, and I’m procrastinating.) when my father-in-law looks over his left shoulder, sees the “oncoming” traffic, screams, grabs the steering wheel, and hauls the car up onto the sidewalk.
Sometimes I think I married into a sitcom.
I think you might have slightly unrealistic expectations. Driving isn’t an innate skill. Maybe you were unusual and figured it out right away (or you’ve got some selective memory going on), but for most of us, it takes time to learn. The main thing that makes a person a better driver is experience, and there’s no shortcut to that.
Amen! More people, and not just teenagers, need to understand this.
Alice, have you thought about how driving privileges are going to work once he does get his license? Are you going to get him a car, are you going to encourage him or help him to get a car, or are you going to let him borrow yours or your husband’s? What will he have to do (stuff like keep up his grades) to get driving privileges?
Have a talk with him about drinking and driving. Be sure he knows that a lot of states (I don’t know if Arizona is one of them) have zero-tolerance laws for people under 21. That means that, instead of the 0.08 limit for drivers over 21, the BAC level at which a driver under 21 can be charged with DUI is pretty much anything at all above zero. Make sure he knows you’d rather be inconvenienced and have to pick him up somewhere or pay for a taxi than have him drive drunk or ride in a car with a drunk driver.
Some states have other restrictions on drivers under 18. Some of them restrict the number or ages of passengers they can have in their car, and some restrict when they can drive (curfew). Know what the law is in your state, and make sure he knows it, too.
Make sure he knows that, when he is driving with friends in the car (if the state and your house rules allow it) or riding in a car with his friends, that’s not a good time for horsing around. My boyfriend in high school lost a good friend that way- she was driving, and some jackass riding in the car thought it would be funny to lean over her shoulder and grab the wheel. The car crashed, and the driver died. I don’t know if the person who grabbed the wheel survived, but if they did, imagine how it must feel to realize “I did something stupid, and I killed my friend”. I know we’re dedicated to fighting ignorance here, but I’m glad to be ignorant of what that’s like. Make sure he knows that stuff like racing on public streets or other stunts to impress his friends are stupid and dangerous, and might lead to his losing his driver’s license or to your revoking his driving privileges.
Let him see what some of the costs of driving and maintaining a car are like. Take him with you when you get gas (and make him pump gas a few times, just to be sure he knows how) so he can see what it costs. Take him with you when you go to get routine maintenance done on the car, so he can see what that costs. Show him your insurance and car registration bills, and car payment bills if you make car payments. I don’t think it would be a bad idea at all to ask him to contribute to paying for some of those expenses, especially paying for gas.
Even local quirks–where I got my driver’s license, the tests were administered starting in a parking garage, so one needed to be comfortable handing over a stamped ticket to the attendent, and then later picking up a new ticket. Not a major problem for me, or presumably for most folk, but one young lady I know who failed repeatedly failed one test beacause she handled that process so badly. (I think she hit the ticket dispenser with her car.)
Same young lady failed another test for swearing at the idiot who cut her off and stole her parking place when she went to parallel park. Understandable reaction? Yes. Good reaction to have during one’s driving test? No. She was directed to return to the parking garage immediately, do not pass GO, do not collect 200 dollars.
For that matter, while it need not be the first thing you practice when teaching driving, doing some of those routine errand things, like parking in a parking garage, paying for a parking ticket, even going through the drive-through at McDonald’s are good things to teach a new driver. Really, once you have some confidence in your kid’s skills, have them drive you most places that you both go, and keep this pattern up after the kid gets his or her license, so that the skills are better ingrained, better practiced.
personal experience, every single driver I have taught who had this habit also had the following habits
foot on brake while accelerating either forward on a hill or more commonly in reverse while backing up a hill. and I mean pretty heavy brake and gas at the same time. some weird way to control the speed of the car. (side note, when starting on a steep hill I use the 2 foot trick to keep the car from rolling, hold the brake, give it just a little gas, then release and drive away)
need to stop unexpectedly? both feet hit the floor…this does not help your car stop faster, (once kid even did this when trying to get on the freeway, kept pushing both pedals harder and harder when he was trying to accelerate to freeway speeds)
the above mentioned driving with your foot on the brake pedal…your brake lights are there to tell people behind you that you are slowing down, if they never turn off they arent really doing anyone any good at all.
in Washington its illegal, I am sure this is the case in most states as well. most of the time I have had to deal with this the parents involved are older. (my last girl with this problem was a bit of a surprise, shes 15 and her dad was 60, not sure about mom) 2 guys I taught as young adults had this habit, both were taught by their grandfathers who were also farmers.
the standard argument is it saves time when you need to brake suddenly, the reality is that 99.9999% of the time you dont need that extra sliver of a second shaved off your brake time. and given the problems that come with this kind of driving its not worth it.
as for parallel parking, its hard if your teacher sucks or you have to figure it out for yourself, its not a hard skill if your teacher has a clue. (hell if I can find it I have a printable version I give to students who request one that works well even without a teacher to help with the finer points)
this is just my opinion but if you cant parallel park (as in are unable to as opposed to never learned properly) you probably shouldnt be driving. its not hard to do and if that gives you fits then I hate to see how you handle the complexities of actual city streets.
One thing my dad did when teaching me to drive was to insist that I actually announce obstacles as a I saw them, speed limit signs, etc. So, I’d be driving him around, and it would sound like:
Mr. Excellent: Speed limit sign, 35 MPH. Slowing to 35 MPH.
Dad: Good.
Mr: Excellent: Curve detected. Decelerating.
Dad: Good.
Mr. Excellent: Pedestrians detected. Targeting.
Dad: WHAT?!
Mr. Excellent: Oh, fine. Avoiding.
shrugs It worked for me. My family’s a bit weird, though. 
Driver Ed class. Behind-the-wheel training.
Pay someone else to teach him. Besides, you’ll get a break on the insurance and you’re gonna need it.
Bondurant Advanced Teenage Driving
I plan to buy both my nephew and niece a course in this when they reach the appropriate age; the idea is to teach them situational awareness, car control, driving within your limits, and crash avoidance.
I think that’s a good idea. I do something similar when I notice that I’m shoulder checking out of habit and not registering what I’m looking at. Jim told me that his defensive driver instructor when he was younger made them do that, too.
Let me add my voice to people saying that people who drive with their left foot on the brake are a huge pain in the ass. I was taught that when the person in front of me brakes, it’s an alert to me to be aware of conditions - when they brake every two seconds, it’s like they’re crying wolf.
This makes sense since a lot of farm tractors and other equipment encourage you to position your feet on both the brake and the gas at the same time. Braking, of course, in these slow moving behemoths isn’t quite the same. Also, using one or the other is usually a multistep action so it doesn’t matter anyway.
I was recently a problem learner. I had no interest in driving and was, in fact, quite afraid of it. I failed my first driving test, and refused to drive for two years afterwards. I failed my second, too. I was a pretty bad driver.
I became a MUCH better driver (two years driving and still no accidents, knock on wood) when I started driving by myself. Feeling judged and feeling as if someone knew better than me and could tell me what to do was really my problem. I don’t get into the lane in time? Big deal. I’ll turn around at the next block. Driving on my own terms was what really got me over my fears. Not sure if that helps…