We will discuss Tara Westover’s Educated at our meeting on Wednesday, October 23rd at 4:00p.m. in the GAHS library. Please post questions, comments, concerns, criticism, and the like on this blog prior to, during, or after our meeting (before November 1st if you want extra credit). All questions and responses should indicate an active reading of the text and function to move the conversation forward. (Note: surface-level or obvious questions and responses will not count as participation.)
Those of you unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts may participate in the discussion below by posting a discussion question and offering a detailed response, or by responding to two questions already posted. The note above applies here as well, so heed it!
First off, I want to say that this is now one of my favorite books. It is something completely different from what I usually read, but it was a good kind of different.
I want to start this by saying that I didn’t completely understand when Dr. Westover said, “I am not the child my father raised, but he is the father who raised her.” Does this mean she credits who she is to her father? Or is she saying that she’s broken off from her father and is not who she used to be anymore? Maybe none? Maybe both? Maybe something completely different? I’m not sure.
I understood this book to be about a few different things. First, maybe a story of her victory of education. A sort of triumph of her courage to go beyond the mountain she grew up in. The only home she really had to find was the true and authentic version of herself and this was a story of her survival up until that point. She found a way to grow despite her family’s concrete beliefs. Being shunned from your own family for not believing what they do is not light. I could never imagine that myself, but the fact that she did gives me hope that people can learn, change, and break a toxic cycle regardless of where they come from. And the first step to that is through becoming educated about the world. An individual has to gain their own understanding of the world so that they can create their own perspectives and opinions on it instead of following someone blindly.
I also understand the book to be about abuse and how abusers and bystanders twist the reality of the victim’s and continue the ongoing cycle of abuse. Shawn abused Dr. Westover both physically and verbally throughout the course of her life. What’s even more important, is that their parents found a way to constantly disprove her and find a way lessen or downplay Shawn’s abuse. They created an entire reality where they made it seem as if Dr. Westover was possessed or crazy just to protect their violent and seriously unstable son. They not only did this to Tara but to Shawn’s wife and son as well. They let the current of abuse continue.