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EDUCATED: A MEMOIR BY Tara Westover
REVIEW BY Misha Monnin Principal of Central Academy Middletown City Schools
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ducated: A Memoir by Tara Westover is a New York Times Best Seller and has been reviewed thousands of times. It is a highly controversial, highly emotional, and thought-provoking read. It is a story written in an almost lyrical prose that describes a girl’s love of her home and connection to her family. Westover’s parents maintain that in the book, she falsely portrays their family as fundamentalist Mormons living in isolation in the mountains of Idaho with a paranoid, apocalyptic view of the world. Westover tells the story of growing up in a family who did not trust doctors or hospitals. Instead, they relied on the homeopathic remedies her mother created in the home. She shares her belief that her father’s hatred of doctors
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was so strong, it outweighed his love for his children. She believed he would let them die rather than get them medical help. While never diagnosed, Tara shared her belief that her father had the characteristics of a person who had Bipolar Disorder. Not only did Westover endure erratic behavior from her father, she also endured violence from her older brother. In addition to the family’s distrust of modern medicine, there was also a distrust of the government and public schools. Until Westover turned 16, she received most of her education by helping her mother create tinctures for her work as a midwife. At sixteen Tara decided with encouragement from one of her brothers to study and take the ACT. She was accepted at Brigham Young University. Her desire for an education led her to Harvard and Cambridge University. However, the further she went in her education, the further apart she grew from her family, but the knowledge she gained transformed her. She became educated. As an educator, this memoir made me reflect on how important family connections are to a child’s educational experience. How a parent’s experience with education can be so influential on a child’s growth. My own experience was very different from Tara’s. Even though my mother never attended any schooling beyond high school, she insisted on nothing less than my acquisition of a bachelor’s degree and she set the expectation for academic excellence. When I reflect on these two vastly different experiences, I am reminded of the diversity within my school too. Each child is bringing to class a different perspective of school and education. Recognizing and respecting that diversity is paramount. This reinforces the importance of forming relationships with families and students, because those connections can be so critical to ensuring a child’s success.
SPARKS IN THE DARK: Lessons, Ideas, and Strategies to Illuminate the Reading and Writing Lives in All of Us
BY Travis Crowder & Todd Nesloney REVIEW BY Chad Warnimont, Ed.D. Principal of Frank Elementary Perrysburg Schools
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parks in the Dark, written by Travis Crowder and Todd Nesloney, is a must read for all educators. Although the book focuses specifically on igniting a love of reading and writing within our students, the book shares practical strategies that all educators can implement in a meaningful, practical, and relevant way in any K-12 classroom. The book is written from the perspectives of two educators sharing personal experiences from the classroom, making this book relatable to a wide range of educators. This book is important for educators to read because it emphasizes the importance of student
