The Brutal and Beautiful Art of Education

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | February 28, 2020 | Jacob Bruggeman

[karpov]

Tara Westover and her family lived off the grid on Buck’s Peak, a mountainside in Idaho so remote that life there was anchored in “circles of perpetual change that, when complete, meant that nothing had changed at all.” Tara’s father, a Mormon fundamentalist whose family had been living on the Peak for a half-century, ruled it as his kingdom, where he prepared for Jesus Christ’s second coming.

He “lived in fear of time,” as Tara wrote in her memoir, Educated—but time still transpired in his world, even if it was ending.

Educated details Tara’s escape from that world, the creation of her own life at Brigham Young University and, later, her development as a young scholar at the University of Cambridge. Yet what defines the arc of her story is not simply education, but her conscious choice to embrace education as a means of deliverance from an unpleasant past. Our personal histories, however unpleasant, can rarely be forgotten, but Tara’s story demonstrates how a liberal education can equip students with the tools to interpret these histories. It’s a memoir that, perhaps unintentionally, captures just how liberating the humanities can be.

The Westover parents homeschooled all their children. On Buck’s Peak, education was “entirely self-directed,” as Westover remembers it. Education was merely an open pitch, inviting exploration—but only when the children weren’t at work preparing for the Days of Abomination.

Indeed, an ever-present possibility of apocalypse loomed in the family’s psyche. As such, summertime was not enjoyed as a time of play, but constituted “canning season” for Tara and her siblings. The family’s military-grade 50-caliber rifle was a similar investment for the future. Beyond the preparation of provisions, the family’s Mormon fundamentalism, as interpreted by Tara’s father, forbade the use of modern medicine, a false god “whore[d] after” by the “faithless.”

[karpov]

It appears that she was able to get a good education at Brigham Young University. I wonder if she would at most other colleges.

[Persevero]

The point of the essay seems to try to be that a liberal education helped her overcome her childhood that included poor education.

I might argue that her education in her youth prepared her well for her scholastic endeavors and accomplishments.

[fortes fortuna juvat]

I might argue that her education in her youth prepared her well for her scholastic endeavors and accomplishments.
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And I would forcefully argue that how these people live and the choices they make as people with unalienable rights is not any of Mr. Martin’s business, nor anyone else’s.