twaddle

One of my tasks over the summer has been to brush up on my Charlotte Mason. For those of you that are not acquainted with Miss Mason, she was an educational philosopher in England in the early 20th century. Her philosophy embraces the amazing potential of children as persons made in the image of God, and she proposes a steady diet of living ideas through rich books as well as training in habits in order to educate and raise children into godly and effectual adults.

For Charlotte Mason, a good book is one that is beautifully written and full of rich, living ideas upon which our minds can feed. (Have you ever read a really good book and had one little scene or phrase resonate in your head over the course of the next few days--that is a living idea and exactly what Charlotte Mason was talking about.) The opposite of a good book is what Charlotte Mason calls twaddle. Twaddle is empty and foolish. Miss Mason would say it is like feeding your mind sawdust--tasteless and totally lacking in nutrition, impossible to live on. Recently I was at the public library looking for some research material for my students. As I perused the teen non-fiction section, my twaddle meter almost exploded. The shelves were full of biographies of teen stars, rappers, and other celebrities that will be forgotten in a matter of months. While I am sure there is a place in the world for biographies of the stars of the Twilight films and the Olsen twins, does this type of literary trash really need to occupy the entire section of non-fiction for young people? Then I thought of all my students who say they don't like to read. No wonder, I thought, if this is what you have to read, I wouldn't like it either. Twaddle. Pure twaddle. (To be fair, there were 3-5 books about World War II and the Holocaust. Those were not twaddle.)
Above is a snapshot of the bookshelves in the teen non-fiction section of the public library. Seriously?

(P.S. I must admit that I just finished filling my head with televised twaddle in the form of the Bachelorette. Ironic, I know; I willingly to admit it. But I think Charlotte Mason would be ok with a little twaddle, right?)