Educated

by Tara Westover

[ibeforem]

Tara Westover grew up in rural Idaho, the youngest daughter of a somewhat fundamentalist (heavy on scripture but no plural wives) Mormon family. Following the FBI's raid on Ruby Ridge in 1992, her father also completed his plunge into becoming a paranoid survivalist, complete with burying gas and guns on their land so they would be ready when the FBI came to take them away.

But that's just a little bit of the story. Tara had no birth certificate, no vaccinations, no formal education, and really no home-schooling. Her parents' idea of home-schooling was not interfering too much if they found a textbook to read. They wouldn't use doctors or hospitals voluntarily, even under the most dire of circumstances. The book documents many times when one of them could have easily died.

The family was also quite abusive. Not only did her father have a penchant for forcing them to take on dangerous tasks, but older brother Shawn was downright dangerous, possibly as a result of a serious head injury he suffered while working in the family junkyard. I was legitimately scared for her safety, several times.

Despite all this, Tara manages to make it out, not only attending BYU (thanks to barely passing the ACT, some creative fudging of her educational background, and the kindness of a church leader), but then going on to further education at Oxford and Harvard. It really is a quite amazing story about how someone can figure out how to educate themselves, even after years of mis-education.

Do I think the book is 100% true? Probably not. I'm sure there is some embellishment, either purposeful or because of the infallibility of memory. But overall I don't think it really matters. This is a great story of perseverance and survival.