Educated

Educated

Adult memoire
I was in North Carolina visiting my family. The lights in the
store I was in suddenly went out. I immediately started looking for
Harriet. When she (then he was a she) saw me she said, "I thought at
least you'd be taken." Harriet had attributed the blackout to the
arrival of the Rapture rather than shortcomings on the part of
Carolina Power & Light. She had been left behind because she'd
slipped from the proper redeemed mindset by looking through packages
of women's cotton panties to find one in her size. Through Harriet
I'd gained insight into the waiting on the end times frame of mind.
It was not a family thing. Mom, a regularly attending
Episcopalian until having a severely brain damaged daughter and
working took all her time and energy, was on the highway to Hell
because, among other things, her garments revealed her arms and legs.
I was a member of the redeemed despite my much skimpier attire because
most of the time I lived about a thousand miles away. Harriet could
see me as she wanted to without being contradicted by everyday reality.
In the years I volunteered at the Bangor Public Library I saw
the families visiting in search of safe enough home schooling
materials. Often the whole family dressed like they had stepped out
of Little House On The Prairie. The wife and children always seemed
pale and subdued. The husband/father was, in their eyes, lord and
master. I wondered what those poor kids had to deal with.
Tara Westover's memoir, Educated, gave me a glimpse into that
way of life. She was born, the youngest of seven children, in an
isolated part of rural Idaho. She missed out on many things most of
us take for granted because of her father's beliefs concerning
government conspiricies. She and her siblings didn't attend public
school. Even the most severe injuries and illnesses were treated with
home remedies rather than visits to hospital, doctor, or dentist. Her
mother, with no formal training whatsoever became an unlicensed midwife.
Of course to that family the end times were as much a reality as
degree attainment is to me. Not sure when it will happen, but it will
happen. Summers were spent canning and storing. Bunkers would hold
food and gas so they'd be eating and driving when the wicked were
starving. Guns for self defense were buried in the ground.
In theory Westover and her siblings were homeschooled. But
earning money to get off the grid and prepare for the end times took
precedence over all else. The sons worked in the father's junkyard and
the daughters helped their mother prepare herbal remedies. The three
older boys had been in public school until they were pulled out. In
one of them, Tyler, the schooling took. Even after he was pulled out
of the classroom he taught himself from textbooks whenever he could
find a few minutes. One day he left his family home for college.
Not surprisingly, Tyler was the one who reached out to Westover
to encourage her to follow in his footsteps. Somehow she was able to
study enough to ace the ACT and get accepted into Brigham Young
University, a strange and confusing new world, one that contradicted
everything she'd been taught at home and taught her many things that
the other students took for granted but she had never imagined. Her
path through it and beyond makes for a really fascinating narrative.
On a purrrsonal note, today was the second day of Higher Education
Hello. That's when people who have been accepted to my program spend
time here seeing what we're like and interviewing for GAs. Students
who are already here are encouraged to hang out with them and help
them to feel welcome. That's what I did today. It was so much fun.
And there are some students I really want to see join us.
A great big shout out goes out to our visitors with best wishes for
each to find his/her/their best possible program!
jules hathaway



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