Educated - Tara Westover

Reviewer’s Note:

“I’ve always prided myself on my ability to teach myself things. Whenever I don’t know a lot about something, I’ll read a textbook or watch an online course until I do. I thought I was pretty good at teaching myself—until I read Tara Westover’s memoir Educated. Her ability to learn on her own blows mine right out of the water”

,that’s what Bill Gates has said about Tara Westover. And I completely agree with it. The journey that Tara has been on is remarkable. Between her roots and her destination, the times she’s faced and the way she learned and grew from it is what she calls, “An Education”. It has inspired me since I read it, and I hope it inspires you as well.

Book Review/Summary:

Harvard and Cambridge, two names which when you hear, you imagine two schools with very high reputations. For a normal person, with formal education, it’s still next to impossible to make it to these schools. Imagine trying to go to these schools without any formal schooling and namesake homeschooling. And that’s what makes Tara Westover so special. Irrespective of all her challenges, she went to Cambridge for her Masters (with scholarship) and Ph.D. She even received a Research Fellowship from Harvard. Who could have imagined, a girl who stepped inside a classroom for the first time when she was 17, could do all this. And that’s was inspires me the most about Tara.

Tara was born to survivalist parents, with her father continuously believing that doomsday was just around the corner and her mother, a midwife and healer. She was the smallest amongst seven siblings and spent her childhood working in her father’s junkyard. Tara’s father believed the government was out to brainwash society and stray them away from God. The paranoia her father experienced was so extreme that he believed his family should always be prepared, even making the children carry supplies with them at all times.

If that sounded extreme, wait till you read this. Tara was born at her home and did not have a birth certificate until the age of 9. The state of Idaho did not know, until then, that she existed! And this is just the beginning. Her father had such paranoia that he didn’t even allow them to visit doctors. Major burns, car accidents, and life-threatening injuries, all were treated at home. Tara’s parents were so much against foreign medicine and doctors, that when Tara once told her mother that she was taking penicillin, her mother reacted by giving her herbs to flush the bad effects penicillin would have on her.

And the troubled part of her family is still not over. One of her siblings, Shawn, was brutally abusive towards her. He beat her up so badly that it broke her wrist. He used to drag her by her hair, flush her in the toilet, and even threatened to kill her on occasions. And irrespective of all this, her parents turned a blind eye towards this behavior of her brother. When this behavior increased beyond control, Tara shared all this with her other sibling Tyler (who at that time was studying in college), who told her to move away from the family and apply to college.

And from there began the journey which Tara describes as “An Education”. From teaching herself topics so that she could take the ACT and apply to college, to being admitted to BYU (Brigham Young University), and the way her small decisions caused drastic problems in the family. The way she not knowing anything about history caused big problems for her in college, to the way her roommates taught her and showed her what the outside world looked like. From going to the dentist for the first time to realizing how difficult swallowing a tablet is when she took her first one. Education as Tara describes took her on a journey of many firsts and many unknowns but a journey which showed her, how big the outside world is and how wrong her father’s thinking is. Educated as Tara says, is the journey of her learning from her problems, making the necessary changes in her life and moving on.

Honestly, I was truly inspired after reading this book. The incidents I have written about are just a mere fraction of the multiple incidences which Tara has faced. It takes a lot of courage to take a stand against your family when you know the consequences can be as large as they never talk to you again, and Tara dared to take those steps because she knew she was right. This book is one of my personal favorites and I genuinely believe everyone should read it. I truly believe that it has a life lesson for every single one of us. So do check it out.

Happy Reading.