I put in the max. I cannot honestly remember how many hours 1 semester of Driver's Ed is...
I also drive an automatic. My dad tried to teach me to drive in his stick shift. I did fine in the grocery store parking lot, but I had a lot of problems going from full stop at a stop sign/light to going again. Dad finally bought me an old automatic transmision (1980 Plymouth Volare for US$700) when he thought I was going to drop the tranny in his car.