Lucien has many positive reviews, so I think his teaching style clearly works well for some…read morestudents--it just didn't work for me. I'm not trying to criticize his technique as a whole, but I do want others to have a clear sense of what to expect.
Booking a session was quick and easy, and I was able to get an appointment the very next day, which I really appreciated.
I understand that driving instructors sometimes need to be curt and direct for safety reasons. However, I think the type of feedback also needs to match the situation and the student's experience level. For me, the lesson felt like an hour of being yelled at. I was constantly aware that I was doing something wrong, but not always what I had done wrong or how to fix it. My impression was that Lucien overestimated my prior driving experience. This could likely have been resolved by taking a few moments to pause, talk through what we were about to do, and ask whether I had done it before.
When I asked questions, Lucien was willing to demonstrate, but many of his instructions weren't clear to me, and his tone made me feel as though I was being scolded, even if that wasn't his intention. If I made the same mistake multiple times, that suggested I didn't understand something, not that I wasn't trying. Instead, he seemed frustrated that I didn't get it immediately and would tell me I was doing it wrong without giving concrete, descriptive feedback about how to correct it.
For example, when I was practicing turning, he would yell that I was doing it wrong and grab the wheel, which didn't help me understand what I needed to change. It would have been far more helpful to pull over, explain the steps clearly, and then practice on a quiet street where I could try again safely and independently. There were also times when I misunderstood his instructions (for instance, going into the leftmost lane instead of going to the leftmost lane that eventually turns right). His immediate response was to yell that I hadn't listened, rather than clarify what I had misunderstood.
This approach felt infantilizing and made me upset and distracted, which wasn't conducive to learning. Pedagogically, it also didn't make much sense to me. I wasn't paying $70 an hour to ignore instructions; if I wasn't following them correctly, it meant something about the instructions wasn't clear. A more helpful response would have been to ask what part I had misunderstood and adjust the explanation so I could succeed next time.
Overall, Lucien may be a good fit for students who thrive under very direct and high-pressure instruction, are very good at articulating the specific skills that they already have and are hoping to gain, and are better at interpreting his feedback. For others, his style may be stressful and difficult to learn from.
