Pope: "Reading nourishes the mind, helps cultivate a conscious and well-formed critical sense...

[Swede]

When we moved to high school in grade 8, we were allowed into the library. A real library. I started burning through books. I could not understand why so many of my classmates didn't do the same. And here we are.

Pope:”Reading nourishes the mind, helps cultivate a conscious and well-formed critical sense, guards against fundamentalisms and ideological shortcuts.” Reading is “an antidote to closed-mindedness which manifests in rigid attitudes and reductive views of reality.”

Pope:”Reading nourishes the mind, helps cultivate a conscious and well-formed critical sense, guards against fundamentalisms and ideological shortcuts.” Reading is “an antidote to closed-mindedness which manifests in rigid attitudes and reductive views of reality.” www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

— Rich Raho (@richraho.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T22:59:43.933Z

[surfered]

1. That's why Trump has never read anything.

[GiqueCee]

4. Except "Mein Kampf".

[Dave Bowman]

7. He probably was very disappointed that there were no images.

[GiqueCee]

12. And to make matters worse...

... there were no crayons, or even a colored Sharpie!

[rpannier]

8. He read it if there was a manga version

Picture heavy, few words

[ananda]

13. And even that is worth looking at in a critical sense.

And to be aware of how monsters "think."

[GreenWave]

2. Hence the GOP's war on education, libraries, literature, art, movies etc.

[dalton99a]

3. .

https://www.wate.com/news/education-schools/alex-haleys-roots-to-be-removed-from-knox-county-schools-libraries/

[Dave Bowman]

9. That's despicable but not surprising. Nasty cowards.

[kimbutgar]

5. When I substitute teach the teachers that have 20-30 minute silent reading in their lesson plan everyday

Do better academically, are calmer and better behaved. They are also able to be more tasked oriented. The classes that don’t have this the kids are wilder, only a few can complete assignments and are incapable of being quiet for at 2 minutes. ( I challenge them and time them and get 2 minutes max out of them) K-1 they need to be read to everyday and can do silent reading by second grade.

[GiqueCee]

6. I think it was John Cornyn of Texas...

... who said, "Bill Clinton never met an education program he didn't like". And the asshole meant it as a pejorative.
The prejudice against education has permeated conservatism of its entire existence, but that prejudice has always been primarily aimed at People of Color, women, and Liberals, but it also includes any marginalized group that WASPy Republicans don't like. Which is anyone who isn't them.
I wish I could live long enough to see conservatism relegated to its rightful place at the Dark End of the Sociopathy Spectrum. But I'll turn 80 next year, so I harbor no illusions that I'll ever get to check that box off my bucket list.

[GenThePerservering]

10. This country's culture is rooted in anti-intellectualism

with its myth of the 'natural man', etc., which is in fact just an excuse for the crass materialism that is the other root of our culture.

[Prairie Gates]

11. Bravo, Papa!