Katrina answers “This book is disgusting to me. I do not...”

Patricia Barry asked this question about Educated:

This book is disgusting to me. I do not understand why an educated and worldly individual would have difficulty understanding the horrible and violent upbringing that she experienced. It is unbelievable to me that she could not understand the violent situation, yet uneducated upbringing she endured. I have completely misunderstood her manner of education in a life in our country, in this country, how is this possible?

Katrina We spend the first years of our lives being primarily influenced by the people who are raising us. They are our whole world, they teach us by word and…moreWe spend the first years of our lives being primarily influenced by the people who are raising us. They are our whole world, they teach us by word and deed everything we know about the world around us. If there are lots of people involved in our upbringing, with lots of different viewpoints, then we gradually learn that there are many different ways of being. If we learn love, openness, and curiosity, our brains and instincts develop differently than if we learn only caution, duty, and the danger of questions. Dr. Westover's childhood and much of her adolescence consisted almost entirely of her father's views and people who respected and lived by those views, meaning that whatever he said and did was her gospel, and she truly had little or no idea that any other ways existed. Leaving home was like suddenly being on another planet, with bizarre and inexplicable rules and customs she was expected to know; anyone with less strength and determination would have been unable to survive the transition and would have retreated to what was familiar and manageable. Even once she started recognizing logically that her father's perspective wasn't the only one, or the only right one, in the world, the instinctive/emotional aspects of functioning are so ingrained after all of those years, that it's amazing she survived becoming part of the rest of the world. (less)

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