Summary: Educated: A Memoir - by Tara Westover

By EssentialInsight Summaries

"It's strange how you give the people you love so much power over you" – Tara Westover

 

Summary of Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

 

Tara Westover's upbringing makes her an atypical PhD candidate. Her parents were survivalist Mormons who did not enroll their children in the formal education system. When she decided to enroll in school as a teenager she faced many challenges both from her family and in learning to adjust. She was fortunate enough to have professors over the years who believed in her and encouraged her to apply for various grants and scholarships. Her educational journey and discovery led her to an appreciation of how education can expand an individual's worldview.

 

What to take from this book?

Gaining an education can be a huge part of helping a person define themselves and where they fit in the world. By only having one teacher, the person's worldview becomes limited by just what that teacher knows. That is the main danger of home-schooling. A comprehensive education is beneficial to the individual and also to society.

 

Who is this book for?

Anyone with an appreciation for learning. The author also covers some personal family dynamics and tension that shaped her life.

The major themes will have you reflecting on:

• How religion can shape an individual and their thought processes.
• The impact that growing up in a patriarchal environment can have on one's education.
• The value of home-schooling.
• The value of a comprehensive education that is not limited by a single individual's worldview.

 

Added-value of this summary: 1) getting an overview of the events and thought processes leading to the educational journey; 2) understanding how gaining an education can change one's life; 3) saving time.

 

At Essential Insight Summaries, we pride ourselves in providing key points in life-changing books in the shortest amount of time. Our summaries focus on bringing vital information that enhances knowledge and understanding of a specific subject matter. We focus on the essentials to ensure you maximize knowledge in the shortest possible time.

 

Disclaimer: This comprehensive summary is based on Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover and does not share any affiliation with the author or original work in any way or form. The summary does not utilize any text from the original work. We want our readers to use this summary as a study companion to the original book, and not as a substitute.

• Language: English
• Publisher: EssentialInsight Summaries
• Release date: Jun 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201331634

Book preview

Prologue

The author, Tara, begins her recollection describing the view of the valley from atop the hill her family farm is on. Her father called the mountain in the distance the Indian Princess because of how the peaks were formed mimicking a woman’s shape. He referred to the mountain as theirs, as home.

In this memory, she is seven years old. One of the main defining things to her in that stage of her life is how different her family is from other families. They are different because they do not go to school. Not only that but she and two of her six siblings, do not have birth certificates. At that point in her life, none of them had ever seen a doctor or nurse either.

Her family had deep-rooted Mormon beliefs. As a result of these beliefs, they spent their time preparing for the Days of Abomination. Their ultimate goal was to survive the terrible days when it came. Consequently, Tara and her siblings were educated in the natural cycles that affected the mountain.

Tara reflects on how the mountain could tell when the seasons were changing based on the thawing of the snow. Previous nomadic Indian inhabitants had used this thawing as a sign to come home. She acknowledges that if she was ever far away and could not see the mountain, it would not be able to tell her when it was time to go home. Without the mountain in the distance of her view, she would be