What Does it Mean to Be Educated?: An Evening with Tara Westover
What does it mean to be Educated? This may seem like a strange question to ask someone who never actually went to school as a child, but JHHS English teacher Mary Hoelscher asked it anyway. To Tara Westover, education means being curious, being exposed to as many ideas and perspectives as possible, and learning to think for yourself.
And it wasn’t just Mrs. Hoelscher who wanted to know the answer; it was a completely sold-out Center for the Arts audience who sat captivated by Tara’s answers to this question and many others.
Expectations
Westover spoke candidly about the difficult transition from childhood, when we need to believe our parents are “good,” to adulthood, when we can more clearly recognize and accurately name their behavior. She viewed her parents through different lenses of expectation. While she expected little from her father because of his limited ability to truly “see” others, she felt the sting of her mother’s “yielding” nature when she failed to stand up for Tara.
Love and Relationships
“Love is a wonderful thing, but love is just love.”
She challenged the idea that love conquers all, suggesting that making peace with oneself is the only way to avoid being at war with the world.
The conversation explored how early relationships create our social blueprint. Westover credited her first love at age 17 for teaching her a simple, yet transformative truth: people are supposed to be nice. She drew laughs from the audience when admitting that later in life she realized her best friend shared the exact traits of her mother- a reminder of how easily we repeat familiar patterns.
Change and Growth
Tara encouraged the audience to “answer the call” when life feels stale and to consider a major change every decade. She also highlighted the “Uninstagrammable Self,” noting that the most substantive parts of life- like the grueling, “horrifying” process of writing a book- don’t photograph well.
What We Will Remember
A sure highlight of the night occurred when a Jackson Hole High School student presented Westover with an honorary diploma, symbolically remedying the fact that the world-renowned author never technically graduated from high school.
In regards to education, Tara noted that “access is often a privilege of class.” At the Teton County Library Foundation & Friends, we believe access to ideas should be a universal right. And while this event was free to attend, it most certainly was not free to produce. This evening was made possible by the dedicated teams at the Library, Center for the Arts, and Jackson Hole News & Guide, and sustained by our donors. Your support ensures that world-class speakers like Tara Westover remain accessible to our community—allowing us all to engage in meaningful conversation and pursue informed action together.
Thank you for joining us for a wonderful Brainstorm Speaker season. Stay tuned for more information on which speakers are coming to the Center for the 26/27 series!
