In a recent interview, I shared my thoughts about the use of twaddle in a Charlotte Mason home (or any home, for that matter). I’ve linked to the original video for you below, but in short, I said that I think that it’s okay for our children to read a little twaddle under certain circumstances. I don’t think this should be controversial, but of course, it is so I’m sharing more on the topic today to help shed light on my thoughts.

Before you check out the videos, let me state a few things:

• If I could find living books that covered all of the things that I’m seeking for my children, I would prioritize them. Hands down. This conversation would be over.
• While my opinions may seem like a big deal to some, we’re spending a lot of time thinking about a rare occurrence. Most of my children’s books are living, occasionally they read twaddle, but many are probably neither.
• “Neither” is a category that we rarely seem to touch in the Charlotte Mason community, but there are A LOT of books that I’d file with that tag. Just because a book is not living, doesn’t mean that it’s trash. And just because you or I may consider a book to be twaddle doesn’t necessarily make it so. I think we have to be very careful about categorizing books in that either/or manner and just as careful about appointing ourselves to Charlotte Mason’s (imaginary) personal police force.

I’ve already stepped outside the bounds of Mason’s methods by introducing another category of books: Lifegiving Books, and I’ve been talking about them for a long time. To be clear, I’m not changing Mason’s philosophy. No one can do that because she’s gone. All we can do is expand upon what she left and bring our own ideas to the table. If my ideas don’t sit well with you, it’s totally okay for you to tune me out or sit with the tension. I’m often in that boat myself.

To be honest, you may not be the person who needs this message. Maybe you have other ideas or have found a workaround that’s just as viable or much better than what I’ve come up with. I’d love to learn from you and grow together on this journey.

But maybe you’re one of the people holding on very tightly to bookshelves lined with 100% living (nearly all white) books with varying degrees of Black tragedy, trauma, and “achievement despite mistreatment.” And if so, I refuse to offer only those books to my children, so we will have to agree to disagree in this area, and that’s totally okay.. And those of you who have been following me for a while already know what I’m about to say:

I love Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, but I love my kids more.

I talk about these topics (living books, life-giving books, and twaddle) in my book, A Place to Belong, if you’d like to hear more details on how I landed here. In the chapter titled “Life-giving Books,” I examine the question, “What makes a book “good?” while addressing many of the issues discussed in this video and more:

Below is the original interview where I shared my thoughts on whether it’s okay to read twaddle (Start at 17:43 if you’re short on time):

You can find me on Instagram @heritagemomblog. I hope to see you there!