Tara Western was raised by Mormons in the Idaho noisy. The girl did not receive an education,but was preparing for the end of the world. In the family, the school was called a tool for the propaganda of the devil, and in childhood Tara and her father collected plants for various medicinal balms and scrap metal and rode a horse. The family had little contact with the outside world. Under the ban were any books except the Bible and sermons, television and medicines. Her father and mother insisted that Tara would learn everything better on her own than if anyone taught her.
Before going to college, she was sure that Europe was a country, and had no idea what the Holocaust meant. She was amazed and frightened by classmates who wore makeup, wore short skirts and drunk Coca-Cola. Tara believed in the rightness of her family and that students in schools were wrong. She was completely sure that they were losing to her family in terms of spiritual and moral qualities, and it was not she who was brainwashed, but them.
She sneakily brought home textbooks and books, studied them at night and even as a child realized that she could learn everything herself. Thanks to this, she was able to pass the ACT (the exam required for admission to the university) and enter Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City. By this time, Tara did not have a certificate of graduation from school, she did not know many basic things and looked like a wild beast from the forest. She was constantly worried that she would be told to do something, and she wouldn't even know where to start.
Her talent and craving for learning were quickly appreciated by the teachers. They helped Tara get a gates Foundation scholarship and go to Trinity College, Cambridge.
Parents did not want to let the girl study in the UK, because Tara had to come home, get married and again engage in collecting scrap metal. But she made her own decision.
Tara graduated from Harvard, and now she is a doctor of historical sciences. In 2018, her memoir, Educated, was published. In America, they became a hit.
Tara worries that modern education is too narrowly aimed at honing work skills. After receiving an education, she became different, self-confident, and able to defend her interests. "If learning doesn't affect your personality, something is wrong," she said. Educators should help students to look at the world more broadly and encourage children's endeavors, so that schools and universities will carry out the tasks assigned to them.
