Educated

[MidiMitch]

Anyone read this? I am really confused about this. How can someone who has grown up with zero cultural capital be able to do a PHD in History. I just don't get it. When she's at BYU she doesn't know what the Holocaust is and then fast forward five years or so and she's suddenly communicating with her Prof on some massively complex things. I just don't get how she is able to self learn all of that information in such a short time. Do you think she was able to do more and knew more when she went to BYU than she lets on?

Bump

5 years is a long time - I don’t see why she wouldn’t be able to learn a lot over that period.

Think about the difference between knowledge at 13 and 18, clearly loads.

She is clearly an exceptionally bright woman. Loved that book.

Absolutely. I agree - loving it (not quite finished) - just finding it quite challenging. (I'm a teacher and have always thought that what you learn and are exposed to as a child is massively important but this is really making me question that).

Challenging as in making me think rather than I can't access it

The thing about a PhD is that it's deep and narrow - it's not a test of your general knowledge or of your cultural capital, but your ability to focus intensely on a very specific question. I seem to remember it was something to do with the history of religion/philosophy (although I might be mis-remembering) so her exposure to an extreme religious sect in her childhood gave her a particular perspective on it.

Not knowing about the Holocaust doesn't stop her being an expert on another specific historical moment. I did my PhD on an aspect of law, and it doesn't mean I can speak knowledgeably about other areas of law.

I loved this book - loved the way she wrote especially about the landscape.

I think she’s an exceptional person and once she realised how much she had missed out on she was able to soak up knowledge like a sponge.

A lot of people wouldn’t have triumphed over that childhood - look at her brothers.

I can't get into this. The first third just drags and drags.

I loved the book. I think that she's clearly a very clever person and actually a focused and narrow education as is often the way with degree learning would lend itself well to a completely blank slate- she enters education with little bias or prior favoured learning method, a total respect for learning and authority, and a complete dedication to her own education.

She’s very very naturally intelligent, given the right environment she clearly has a huge capacity to learn. From the book you can glean that her father is the same, although has clearly channeled his intelligence into his work and obsessions, while her mother is very driven. Tara inherited both of these traits.

Fabulous, fabulous book

I think I must be one of the few people who didn't enjoy this book. I stopped reading halfway through. I found it a bit contrived and unreal and so got bored.

I loved it. I heard her speak about it before I read the book, in an interview with Hadley Freeman. She was very articulate and her story was fascinating.

That was a fantastic book - loved it.

I finished this book recently and absolutely loved it. Still thinking about it and all the incredible things she ended up achieving. The abuse from her brother was awful!

It's still with me over a year after I finished it. What an incredible woman.
I'd also recommend After the Fire by Will Hill if you liked Educated. A novel, but around a cult and very interesting.

@NowSissyThatWalk thank you for the recommendation, I enjoyed Educated and have always been intrigued by cults so will give this a try.

One of my stand out reads of last year, I loved this. But agree with you OP, as an Early Years specialist teacher it’s really challenged a lot of my ideas about how important it is to get those foundations right! I think she is exceptional in a lot of ways though, as a pp said her brothers didn’t manage to overcome their upbringing in the same way. (One did go on to achieve a lot academically though, I’m trying to remember now if he was able to move away from the extreme aspects of the religion or not?)

I finally had to give up on this tonight after persevering for way too long.

I'm sure her journey is fascinating and inspirational, but I couldn't sit through another "farm accident" or be bored of one-dimensional portrayals.

I'm gobsmacked by this book's success.