Thank you for your comment. Of course, nonmembers are good people too. I was merely commenting within the realms LaRee had established. Educating for the Anthropocene: Schooling and Activism in the Face of Slow Violence . Peter Sutoris. MIT Press. 2022. As society, the rules we agree and adhere to are only as good as our ability to watch out for the victims in that same society and it occurs to me that there are community members who could have or should have spoken up for all of the children long before the last child was pushed outside of her own family for recognising the dangers of the twisted relationships around her. LaRee does provide evidence in her memoir that she educated her children. She, herself, is educated. I think that trying to educate a lot of children PLUS perform midwife duties for too many years was simply too much. Perhaps her earlier children received an adequate home education. I don’t know. But I believe Tara when she says she did not receive much education at home. I simply don’t think LaRee was around enough to do it and was probably worn out. Those aren’t excuses, in my opinion. I believe they are further evidence that her later children weren’t taught adequately. Grandma-over-in-town: Faye's mother. A prim and proper woman whom Westover didn't really connect with when she was growing up. She doesn't approve of Gene and became estranged from her daughter Faye after her marriage.

I wonder if the children had been forced to go to school whether the abuse would have been noticed sooner, the deprivation identified through comparison, the general unhygienic and harsh conditions of their life as exploited child workers in a “family business” reported. I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (Hardcover) As a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I will tell you unequivocably that “Mormanism” is NOT a cult. I believe Tara’s church community tried to stand up for her and other siblings, as did her grandparents. If you didn’t read LaRee’s book, then you don’t realize they were in frequent discord with neighbors, who are predominantly of the same religion. The Westovers simply would not listen. To me it was interesting that LaRee/Val would admit that in her memoir.

Thanks for your comment! You bring up a very valid point. Tara’s writing is Tara’s truth. Like you, I suspect Val significantly helped LaRee write “her” memoir. For their family’s benefit, I wish both parents would seek professional counseling. But they’re pretty set in their ways. As such, the family would do well to remove Val from positions of control as much as possible.

I know of married couples who both are mental, with one being much worse than the other. I have often wondered if the less mental one had started out normal, but went mental after living with the other, after years of subjecting themselves to listening to the other, or did they start out with some mental illness, by not recognizing the crazy prior to their marriage? Tony Westover: Westover's oldest brother and first child of their parents. He is noted only as working with their father at the scrapyard. He is 12 years older than Tara.I just finished Educated and was researching more about the author. I was actually STUNNED to find her mother also wrote a book and STUNNED at the title. I was thinking about reading ‘Educating’ but I feel the decision to write that book and use that title honestly confirms the beliefs I made of “mother” after reading educated.

What of more modern works? I used to recommend the “blistering indictment” of the flight from traditional liberal education that is Melanie Phillips’s All Must Have Prizes, to be read alongside Tom Bentley’s Learning Beyond the Classroom: Education for a Changing World, which is a defence of a wider view of learning for the “learning age”. These two books defined the debate in the 1990s between traditional education by authoritative teachers and its rejection in favour of a new learning in partnership with students. LaRee mentions several books and courses she has studied to gain her knowledge and expertise in midwifery, homeopathic remedies, foot-zone treatments, and chakra methods. Years of experience and miracles in treating two family members with severe burns using herbal remedies and pressure-point healings provide testimonials for the products she uses and sells through her now multi-million-dollar company Butterfly Expression.Faye Westover (pseudonym): Westover's mother, a midwife and herbal specialist. She teaches her children at home.

James Davison Hunter – The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age without Good or Evil (2000) Educated was a very good book. I feel she probably suffered much physical abuse from the older brother. I’m happy for her.. she’s done well.Robin: Westover's second-year roommate. She helps her adjust to living with strangers and other aspects of life off the mountain.