Educated: Week 1 Discussion

Please use a different color font for answers.

Norms

Make a list of your group norms below.

● Everyone contributes to each idea

● No screaming
● No violence
● No Phones

Roles

List any absent group members:

● Facilitator/Prioritizer: Braxton
● Recorder: Sky
● Connector:
● Questioner: Harper

Notes

1. Educated starts with an epigraph from Virginia Woolf: “The past is beautiful because one never
realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the
present, only the past.” What do you think Woolf meant by this? Why do you think Tara Westover chose
to begin her memoir this way?

We think that Woolf meant by this is that when you are in the moment you do not understand the
depth of what is happening and what is truly going on. In the book, she was going through a really hard
time and she did not know anything else, so therefore this was her normal. Once she saw what the real
world was like she realized the true depth and meaning of what was going on and how that made her
feel. When she cuts herself with the iron, it demonstrates how her dad was abusive or neglectful. The
book is from a retrospective point of view and this makes it a more meaningful book and therefore she
makes comparisons between the world and the world she grew up in.

2. In the first pages of Educated, we are introduced to the mountain in rural Idaho where the Westover
family lives, described as a dark, beautiful, and commanding form in a “jagged little patch of Idaho.”
How does this setting inform the family’s experience?

This setting informs the family’s experience by demonstrating how the family is living in a darkness and a
sea of worry and absence of education where the only thing that they are focused on is the end of the
world and preparation for that, rather than viewing the world as a place where they can enjoy their
lives. There are symbols shown with the mountains and the personification and description of the
mountains and the place they are living in and it matches closely with the family and the way their
family functions. It is a way that they are taught to not trust the outside world, and that only the Indian
Princess and god can protect them. Everytime something bad would happen, it would be away from the
mountain and the Indian princess. Their minds are easily moldable and manipulated and therefore their
father is good at manipulating them into living in a state of mind of fear.

3. We are also introduced early in the book to the standoff at Ruby Ridge, a 1992 gunfight between FBI
agents and U.S. marshals and a heavily armed family on an isolated homestead. How does this incident
cast a shadow over the Westover parents and children, and the survivalism that characterizes their
upbringing?

This incident casts a shadow over the Westover parents and children, and the survivalism that
characterizes their upbringing. They grow up in a state of panic all the time. His dream is that the
government does not know about them at all, and that they will be able to thrive through fear, and keep
the kids close to home without leaving somewhere else, and he needs his kids to be a part of that. It is
interesting to see what happened with the mom and whether she was agreeing or not with the dad’s
progressively more intense thoughts, ideas and decisions and how she was able to make decisions based
on that. The mom is probably manipulated and begins to believe the lies from the dad and her husband
and to see how that affected her and her children overall.

4. In Chapter 5, Westover’s brother Tyler announces that he’s going to college, something none of her
other siblings have done. Why does Westover’s father, Gene, object to formalized education? How does
Tyler’s leaving have an impact on Westover?

Westover’s father, Gene, objects to formalized education because it takes away from god and brain
washes them. He distrusts the government and believes that public education is negative and has a very
negative intention and he does not want his kids to leave, and not remember that they should be
dedicated to their religion. He thinks what he is doing is protecting his children, and that when the world
ends that they will all be prepared and know what to do, and that they will all work together to achieve
that. He wants them all to be together in order for them to leave and go together whenever they would
need to. He thinks that something catastrophic is going to happen and feels that this is his duty and
therefore believes that school will get in the way of that.

5. What are the government's jobs in situations like this?

The government's jobs in situations like this should be able to do something about it, because this is an
abusive situation with living in an environment of fear and always having to feel that they are ill
prepared. This mindset and environment creates effects on each of the kids in a very negative way. They
should be going to school, yet it is not always enforced. The government should be protecting the
children more than keeping families together in order to create the greatest amount of normalcy. It’s
hard to say what a child can be removed from a home for. There is extreme emotional abuse.
Summary:

Overall, Westover did not realize the true extent of abuse and the living in fear that had been occuring
while this had been going on, but once she removed herself from this situation after so much time, she
was able to understand and gain a new perspective on what had really happened to her and how that
impacted her and what lasting impacts that it had made. She was living in a place where modern
medicine was not allowed. Where a sinus infection could be the reason for her death, although this
could be something easily treated in a hospital. There is a lot of symbolism with the location that they
are in. The mountains that are described as jagged and dark. This demonstrates how the family and the
way it functioned and how they aligned together. Although this is a nonfiction, and there is not much
room to “create symbols” or implement a sort of satire, yet the way that Westover describes this is
unique in that sense and creates that idea. On the contrary, I would describe the mountains, here in
Utah, where I have been most of my life, a beautiful place, a place of escape from the world, and creates
a beautiful landscape and is unique from some other places. Therefore, her own thoughts and bias
around this demonstrated imagery and symbolism that contributed to the message of the book.