A personal review of Tara Westover's Educated

Speaking to CNN about his reflections on The Book of Mormon Musical, LDS historian and
author Richard Bushman said, “Mormons experience the show like looking at themselves in a
fun-house mirror. The reflection is hilarious but not really you. The nose is yours but swollen out
of proportion.” It makes sense that the musical’s representation of Mormonism was not authentic
as the musical is intended to mock and satirize.
Reading Tara Westover's book Educated also felt like looking at a fun-house mirror of Mormonism.
In Tara’s experiences growing up in a Mormon family in Buck Peak, Idaho, key aspects of Mormonism
and Mormon culture seemed blown out of proportion. However, unlike the Book of Mormon musical,
the representation is not overblown to mock or satirize the religion. Educated is honest and deadly serious.
The book feels like a gift, the sharing of a sincere story; not like an axe-grinding session with
Mormonism. Here are some of the aspects of Mormonism and Mormon culture that I have experienced
that were uncomfortably inflated in Tara Westover’s book:

• An emphasis on self-reliance and emergency preparedness that is partly justified by the potential imminence of the Second Coming.  
• Distrust of government as a welfare provider, which can result in welfare recipient shaming and/or hesitancy about receiving welfare and other government benefits.
• Susceptibility to alternative medicine.
• Tendency to homeschool, which is related to a distrust of public education.
• Traditional gender roles.
• Reverence for the founding fathers.
• Rhetoric that draws lines between “the chosen” people and and people “of the world.” As expressed by author Claudia Bushman, Mormons think of themselves as “morality in a sea of moral decay.”
• Distrust of intellectuals, particularly in left-leaning fields like sociology and psychology.

Many of the aforementioned aspects of our culture I have experienced in dramatically
different ways than Tara. For example, my mom has a PhD in American religious history, so I was
not swayed when a mission companion of mine expressed that he didn’t trust academics with
degrees in history to tell history, particularly Mormon history.

Tara’s experiences showed me another side of a culture that I love so much. Her book helped me
realize that the potential danger behind some of the above tendencies and beliefs. Educated is an
amazingly gripping book and I recommend it to everyone.

As an admirer and advocate of Mormonism, one thing I appreciated about her book is that—even
though some will interpret the book as a warning concerning the brainwashing and manipulative
power of religion—Tara portrays the goodness in Mormonism too. I loved the Mormon good guys
in the book including:

• Robin, Tara's reasonable, supportive, kind, and persuasive roommate at BYU who convinces Tara to go to a doctor and apply for grants (page 204). 
• Tara’s wise and understanding bishop, who helps her understand her brother’s abuse, provides listening ears, and offers guidance and financial support. He seems like he was everything a bishop should be and also represents many things I love about the Church (page 202). 
• Tara’s professor at BYU, Dr. Kerry, who encourages her not to worry about her concerns of stepping out of traditional gender roles, and helps open the door for her to do graduate work at Cambridge (page 229-230).

One thing I hope that readers of Educated realize is that a few things that Tara’s family practiced
were in opposition of stated Mormon policy or belief. For example, Tara’s family had a deep
avoidance and distrust of the medical establishment. At a recent Church General Conference,
Dallin Oaks reminded Mormons in his talk Healing the Sick that seeking professional medical help
should always be a primary path towards healing. Another unusual aspect of Tara’s family that was
contrary to Mormon teaching was its neglect of education. Many Mormon leaders encourage
Mormons to “get all of the education that you can.” Amy Chua, in her book The Triple Package,
says that Mormons are overrepresented in some the highest educated circles in America.
One unrelated last comment to close here, and this time, I will be putting my educator’s hat on.

I currently work as a High School math teacher, but if I had to recommend one skill to learn from
school it would be reading. As Doug Lemov says in Teach Like A Champion, “Reading is the skill.”
How did Tara go from being totally uneducated to passing the the ACT, graduating from college,
receiving her PhD in History from Harvard, and writing a bestselling book? I’ll answer that
question from a passage from early in the book when Tara was a teenager at home:

I read the Book of Mormon twice. I read the New Testament, once quickly, then a second
time more slowly, pausing to make notes, to cross-reference and even to write short essays
on doctrines like faith and sacrifice…. I worked through the Old Testament next, then …
speeches, letters and journals of the early Mormon prophets.

In retrospect, I see that this was my education, the one that would matter: the hours I spent
sitting at a borrowed desk, struggling to parse narrow strands of Mormon doctrine…. The
skill I was learning was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand (62).