I felt like we had stories about family loyalty; I didn't feel like we had stories about what to do when you felt that loyalty to your family was in conflict with loyalty to yourself.
Tara WestoverRead
An education is not so much about making a living as making a person.
Interpretation
Education shapes a person's character and identity, rather than just preparing them for a job.
Tara Westover's quote emphasizes that the true purpose of education goes beyond mere vocational training; it is fundamentally about personal development and growth. Education molds a person's values, perspectives, and self-awareness, ultimately leading to a more profound and fulfilling life rather than just a means of financial sustenance.
In practice
During a graduation speech focusing on personal growth.
I felt like we had stories about family loyalty; I didn't feel like we had stories about what to do when you felt that loyalty to your family was in conflict with loyalty to yourself.
I had been educated in the rhythms of the mountain, rhythms in which change was never fundamental, only cyclical. The same sun appeared each morning, swept over the valley, and dropped behind the peak. The snows that fell in winter always melted in the spring.
We think love is noble, and in some ways, it is. But in some ways, it isn't. Love is just love. And sometimes people do terrible things because of it.
I was 17 the first time I set foot in a classroom, but 10 years later, I would graduate from Cambridge with a Ph.D. 'Educated' is the story of how I came by my education. It is also the story of how I lost my family.
I think that when memoir goes wrong, it goes wrong from too much memory, too much detail. It's about clearing all that away and just getting to the story.
Although my family attended the same church as everyone in our town, our religion was not the same. I could stand with my family or with the gentiles... but there was no foothold in between.
Seldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.
Reading asks that you bring your whole life experience and your ability to decode the written word and your creative imagination to the page and be a co-author with the writer, because the story is just squiggles on the page unless you have a reader.
An outline is crucial. It saves so much time. When you write suspense, you have to know where you're going because you have to drop little hints along the way. With the outline, I always know where the story is going. So before I ever write, I prepare an outline of 40 or 50 pages.
Good teaching must be slow enough so that it is not confusing, and fast enough so that it is not boring.
Read. Travel. Read. Ask. Read. Learn. Read. Connect. Read.
From that moment on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again.
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