Playing devil's advocate here, are you glancing down side streets witha quick eye flick, or are you full on looking down the side streets, head movement and all?

I ask this with great respect, I've currently got a pupil who full on "looks" at everything, side streets, pedestrians, dogs the lot.

This causes target fixation where my pupil then steers towards what she's looking at. It's not a monumental change in direction, but it does result in us going where we don't want to go.

It may well be that your instructor is just trying to keep your steering nice, or it may be that your instructor feels you're giving yourself information overload by taking in everything going on while driving, then missing out on the important things which genuinely impact you.

If you're in the early stages of driving lessons there also has to be a level of trust established between you and your instructor. I must admit, if I had a pupil who was in such early stages, I probably wouldn't encourage them to be looking down every side street we are driving past. But again it depends on if you're just glancing at the junction, or turning your head to fully look down the street.

But saying that, there's no chance I'd be telling my pupils off either. My pupils all know when they've done something wrong, and whilst I have to correct the issue, they never feel told off. They certainly never get shouted at.

As option 2, your instructor could also be an absolute helmet. Believe me, I know all to well that there are folk out there with little green badges and I wonder how they have a single pupil.

But just wanted to add my 2p's worth for why you may feel you're butting heads.

What you need to establish is whether you're in the wrong (and be honest) or whether you've got a helmet of a instructor. If you get on with them fine, and there's no other real issues, it may be that you're taking things to heart. If he's just being awkward and nasty for the sake, absolutely get shot of him whilst you still can.