Have You Read “Educated”?

“An education is not so much about making a living as making a person.”

― Tara Westover, “Educated”

Have you ever read “The Glass Castle” by Jeanette Walls?

If so (and you liked it) then you might enjoy (if you haven’t yet read it) “Educated” – a memoir by Tara Westover. It is an unbelievable story about Tara’s experience of growing up in a Mormon family in rural Idaho. Tara takes the word “resilience” to a whole new level.

Tara’s parents did not believe in educating their children. Yes, you read correctly. The kids didn’t go to school, nor were they home-schooled.

Here is a snippet from the “Educated” book cover jacket:

“Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom…In the summer, she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard…Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or a nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism.”

Tara not only managed to survive her extremely difficult, dangerous, and heartbreaking childhood, she somehow managed to educate herself enough to get into Brigham University, then Harvard, then Cambridge.

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is beautifully written. But I’ll be honest: it was a real challenge for me to read because I kept getting so angry at the injustice of Tara’s situation. I despised her parents and most of her siblings. There were times when I wanted to pick up the phone and call someone to report the abuse…that happened more than two decades ago in a different country.

Tara’s struggle, later in life, to come to peace with the family and the circumstances she had been born into is heartbreaking to read. But it is also very inspirational, enlightening, empowering…and humbling.

I highly recommend this book.

What has been your favourite memoir to read?

“It’s strange how you give the people you love so much power over you.”

― Tara Westover, “Educated”

Maryanne Pope is the author of A Widow’s Awakening, the playwright of Saviour and the screenwriter of God’s Country. Maryanne is CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and Chair of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund. To receive her weekly blog, Weekly Words of Wisdom, please sign up here.