Has anyone read “Educated” by Tara Westover?  Maybe I’m the last one to read it here.  Either way, I thought it was going to be about escaping from poverty through education (which it kind of was), but the main narrative was of a girl growing up with a mentally ill father,violent brother, and a mother who pretended not to see the neglect and horrific abuse.  My good friend recommended this book to me.  She works with parents who are abusive and neglectful as she is a social worker.  Westover shows the complexity of this girl’s family and how a family can actually be both abusive and loving in a way, how a family can be neglectful but also so important to this particular adolescent.  Warning: Westover doesn’t gloss over the abusive parts of this girl’s life, but paints a heartbreaking picture of how we all love our families even if we have to grow apart from them for our own safety and self-preservation.  This story is painful and beautiful! I think as adults who work with adolescents daily, it’s important to remember that we don’t really know what’s going on in our students’ lives and it’s important to be sensitive and caring even if they frustrate us.