"I don't know if I could actually physically drive a school bus. Doesn't it require either a commercial license, or at least knowledge of how something that big handles? Surely it's different from my little Saturn (even though they are both manual, I think)."
If you're over 5' tall, you can drive one. You take it slow, find out how it handles in corners, and what it takes to stop gently, and there you are. If you're shorter that 5' tall, you use pedal blocks and a seat cushion so you can see over the wheel. Piece of cake.
Lots of school-bus drivers are ladies. Most of 'em aren't very tall.
All the bus drivers I ever had were very short ladies, now that you mention it. They probably did have to use blocks.
I guess it's the door-opening mechanism I'm thinking of. I had it in mind that shifting a bus was different from shifting (say) my little Saturn coupe.
I mean, the shifting ratio I'm sure is different, but if it's as easy as "step on the clutch, shift, let the clutch out," I can handle that!