Educating: A Memoir

Product Information

It appears that LaRee is also on the crazy train too, but not to the extent that Val is, but I wonder what she was like as a 20 year old girl, and why she wanted to choose the life she choose? In the name of religion or not, I guarantee Jesus does not intend for us to be codependent or to force the life or will out of others. I come rather from Tara’s perspective after having escaped a cult 3 years ago and having written my own memoir, after losing everything including my family. I was losing my family, and it seemed to me that there were no stories for that — no stories about what to do when loyalty to your family was somehow in conflict with loyalty to yourself.

One example, on page 100, explains his mindset and convictions: “Val discerns truth from sophistry better than any other man I know. In Educating for the Anthropocene , Peter Sutoris explores education around environmentalism and sustainability in Pashulok, India, and Wentworth, South Africa, two sites particularly impacted by the climate crisis. So even if some details may be distorted, there is not much doubt in my mind that this kind of falsely using God as justification was taking place. She notes a few exceptions for medical treatment, but her point is that medical care was not often sought, though it was needed.

As your comment would indicate, even nurses and medical experts differ in opinions on certain topics.

Additional aspects of their upbringing — nature, exercise, fresh air, real-life problem-solving — were positive and healthy. For example, despite painful experiences, such as resettlement from local lands and air pollution from factories that have induced health issues, teachers had to prioritise teachings in line with neoliberal and development agendas that are considered to be the escape out of ‘fast’ violence (such as poverty) that saturates the daily lives of their students. It’s unfortunate that the parents don’t seem to listen and that Laree doesn’t recognize the dysfunction in her husband. Even though we grew into using herbal remedies almost exclusively, there were certain times when the expertise and counsel of medical personnel blessed our lives,” Chapter 16 tells of several instances where medical care was sought for Westover family members.Part, but only part, of the impetus for writing my memoir at this time, is the publishing of our daughter’s book, Educated.

It’s my understanding that Tara does not retain a relationship with her parents, and I can understand her desire not to reconcile with them. I believe Tara’s accounts about her brother and severely mentally ill father, and even the junkyard. These continuous, collective and dynamic processes are considered key to educating for the Anthropocene(s). It makes me suspicious of people who seek total isolation from the rest of the world, whether it’s praying to God, living on a mountain or off the land or home schooling your children – these actions are still carried out within a greater community or society which plays a role in shielding individuals through constantly reassessing what is acceptable and not acceptable behaviour. So many ignore, including Tara, that the whole reason LaRee started experimenting with natural medicine is because doctors couldn’t help Val’s foot.One of the more concrete findings from cognitive science is that many of the things that engender effective learning are highly counterintuitive. There were times when my family’s near constant censure triggered discouragement, nastiness, and whining in me. They will enhance our nightly reading (I am the reader, as a former radio announcer and current audio-book narrator, and she is the one that sits all cuddled up in blankets, coloring on her iPad while I read – yes, it’s adorable). Was saddened to see how much power you felt to relinquish over to the Westover parents, doubting the fact-checked memoir written by a victim of domestic abuse and to an extent rewarding two mentally ill abusers who are trying to cash out and save face on their own misdoings by self-publishing their book. We’ll never know the full/true story here, but I have concluded that the family environment certainly wasn’t a healthy one.

I do feel Educated is more accurate, but her family disputes it aggressively, and there are variations of some of the incidents Tara mentions. I had many friends including some in the church of the LDS so I have some appreciation of the nature of the environment social and geographical. I haven’t yet finished Educated but yet felt compelled to seek information regarding the family and, like others, am grateful to have landed here. Westover reaches out to her in hopes she will help corroborate Westover's timeline of Shawn's abuse. I am also saddened by the environmental degradation caused by the family and one would expect that those proposing natural remedies would also wish to live in an environmentally harmonious manner.Westover then begins graduate school at Harvard and her parents briefly visit and try to convince her to come home. Whilst at first Sutoris focuses primarily on formal ESE teachings, halfway through the book he includes more direct interactions with students and local activists that give a more holistic idea of the complexities of living at the ‘frontiers of the High Anthropocene’. Thanks so much Kerry for doing such a meticulous and objective comparison and a well written, fair analysis. That was never my intent, even though I share an affiliate link in the article which would earn me a commission. But if I was about to enter the classroom as a teacher for the first time or was looking to improve my practice, I would probably want to read something with more practical advice on what I should be doing and, more importantly, on what I shouldn’t.