#MARCH: Educated- Final Discussion

[M,]

I would like to know how to start this discussion, but I actually don't. While I was reading this book I felt connected with it in a very strong way and in a way that I never imagined could happen. This book is a memoir from Tara Westover – who successfully graduated and has now a Ph.D. Tara was born in Idaho, in a Mormon community. His parents had seven children and followed Mormon precepts to the letter, in a very radical and extreme way (life spoiler: nothing- And I mean nothing- too extreme can be good). This means that the children were educated at home, did not take vaccines and did not take birth certificates, for example. .

The book is written in 3 parts, where we will see the narrator's childhood, adolescence, growth and also, her achievements. We see how much her life starts to change when one of the brothers ends up going against the whole family and going to college, making Tara herself realize that her life didn't have to be just… that. It didn't have to be just her father's authoritarianism, the brother’s physically aggressive behaviors. That she could have a trajectory beyond the mountain (academically speaking but also as a woman and as a human being). Stepping into school at the age of 17 changed her life completely, she learned that she had no destiny set so created her own story. .

Tara was guided by a gigantic survival instinct, a will to live that made me cry all the time. If she didn't go to school and studied at home, she found in the old books and in the figure of her brother the support to not give up of that thirst for knowledge and that desire to learn that dominated her. Educated is one of those stories that magnifies those who are reading, you get inspired by reading the emotional growth and personal evolution of the character through education.
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For us, who live surrounded by information and with a whole world at our fingertips, it can be difficult to understand how anyone could not know what the Holocaust at the age of seventeen. But this was her reality and. sadly, it still is the reality of a lot of people out there. And even though she doubted herself, she didn't give up. With the support of teachers and people she met along the way, Tara was rewriting her story in such a powerful way. No matter how much her old life tried to pull her back in, she went on swimming. She moved on. For someone who was once stuck with the Indian Princess, when she discovered the world there was no turning back.

I have to say I feel a certain relief to know that this book was written away from that reality (a reality that she tries to deny from herself, but her diaries won’t let her). Educated tells the story of the extraordinary strength of a woman who never allowed herself to be stopped, following her path allowing herself to feel the greatness of all her vulnerabilities.

But, in the end, Educated is a book that reminds you of the transforming power of education, words, and writing. Reminds you how we can never underestimate its importance or not to value it enough. Tara is one person, but she speaks for several. It speaks for the many people who have never had the chance to step into a classroom and feel the impact it has within them. Tara is simply herself and so, so she is inspiring.

I, personally, firmly believe in the power of education. I know how much this can change someone’s life and this story touched my heart and I'm still thinking about a lot of things even today….weeks after I finished. But I did talk too much already, what do you guys think about this book?

[Jaqueline]

A lot of people recommended me #Educated but I read especially because of you @iamsarahgrafferty. Read the same words and story you read and then come here at the book club to share some thoughts is so enjoyable. Hope you also share your thoughts with us. I admit that I didn't read the synopsis before I started “Educated” tho. I like to do this with some books/movies/tv shows and be totally surprised. First I looked at the book cover and tried to imagine what the story was about: a giant, colored pencil with a girl on a mountain. I thought: wow! she must have followed a beautiful path, she must be a teacher and now she’ll tell us the great importance of Education. I was a little bit far from the truth but I was mesmerized at the same time. There were many, many moments when I was perplexed and touched by Tara's narrative - lot of tears and tissues was involved during this reading. The first occasion was when Tara said she was 15 when 9/11 happened. I was kinda shocked. At the time I was 14. So all that retrograde vision of her father and that whole underworld was the reality of a girl/woman from almost same age as me! The interesting thing was when Tara experienced this same feeling in chapter 20 when she read about Rosa Perks and Emmett Till. Her proximity with the events could be measured by the lives of people she knew (her mother’s age). The distance between her and history collapsed. This was perhaps one of the moments that motivated her to study history and historians (besides the fact that she wanted to confront Mr. Westover himself and his inexorable truth about the world, about everything!) And the second impacting moment was in chapter 22. After Charles witnessed Shawn's violence against Tara; Charles said he loved her but he couldn't save her. Only she could. Then, years later (on chapter 36) she talk to Charles again by phone. She tells him about Harvard and then about her worries of losing her family. “Have you ever thought just let them go?” Charles came up with this idea and she didn't want do that “because it wasn't something permanent. She could fix.” Charles then said: “Funny how you can change so much but still sound the same as when we were seventeen.” For me that's was the point. That's when I was 100% sure what kind of Education Tara was talking about the whole time. The word “education” means applying methods to ensure training of physical, intellectual and moral development of a human being. Here I include the emotional and psychological development as well. Beyond the education we get at school - and Tara had the best ones (BYU, Cambridge, Harvard) - there is the process of being self-educated, using all the knowledge from books, research, history, college, life - sometimes with the help of a therapist - so we can understand that we must to respect ourselves and tell our own story and be able to have a strong voice about our own lives. In Tara’s case it took a while. How many times I read she was coming back to Buck’s Peak and I couldn’t understand why. But I never judged her. At some level, that was her “normal”, her truth! I always tried to be empathic with her situation. How great was my relief when I read Tara’s words: “I learned to accept my decisions for my own sake, because of me ... because I needed it.” Finally she learned the most important lesson: her positive liberty! This was a extremely personal read. Almost same issues with my family and their beliefs. I’m pretty satisfied to know I’ve been very well Educated thank you very much! I’m so grateful Tara was brave enough to share her story with us and thank you @iamsarahgrafferty for your book recommendations!!!