NEXT UP! 3 152 Tara Westover (born 1986) grew up in a fundamentalist Mormon family in Idaho, USA. Her parents did not trust the authorities and Tara did not attend school until she was seventeen years old. Instead she worked at her dad’s scrapyard and helped her family prepare for what they believed would be the end of the world. However, Tara’s thirst for education and her determination took her all the way to Cambridge, one of the most prestigious universities in the world. In Educated, she tells the story of her struggles to get there and to let go of everything she was taught at home. Educated To Tara’s father, the government is the big enemy. He is constantly worrying about the authorities and takes great care to explain the threat he believes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) represents to the Westover family. In this excerpt, his paranoia reaches a new level and he has his wife and children prepare for a sudden escape. […] I am only seven, but I understand that it is this fact, more than any other, that makes my family different: we don’t go to school. Dad worries that the Government will force us to go but it can’t, because it doesn’t know about us. Four of my parents’ seven children don’t have birth certificates. We have no medical records because we were born at home and have never seen a doctor or nurse. We have no school records because we’ve never set foot in a classroom. When I am nine, I will be issued a Delayed Certificate of Birth, but at this moment, according to the state of Idaho and the federal government, I do not exist. Before reading Consider: What do you think it’s like being homeschooled by your parents or your caretakers? a scrapyard – brotajárnshaugur determination – staðfesta prestigious – virtur a struggle – barátta an escape – flótti a birth certificate – fæðingarvottorð medical records – sjúkraskrár to be issued – gefið út delayed – seinkað according to – samkvæmt
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjIxNzc=