Educated is primarily retrospective, consisting of Tara Westover’s memories about her past. She tells the story of the events of her life from a vantage point in her late twenties, occasionally interjecting to comment on the process of trying to arrive at an accurate version of the past. Tara was born the youngest of seven children to parents whom she refers to as Faye and Gene (pseudonyms). The Westover family lived on a farm in rural Idaho, where Gene made a living salvaging scrap metal while Faye worked as an unlicensed midwife and herbal healer. Gene suffered from paranoid fears about interference from the federal government, and as a result he refused to allow his children to attend school, receive birth certificates, or receive medical attention. Gene was also a devout Mormon who believed in radical self-sufficiency and an impending Day of Judgement.