ready now – Did you even read my post? I wrote quite befeirush that the story of Atlantis was not a book in its own right but was in 2 of Plato’s books. I named them: Timaeus and Critias. And I then went on to say that the Rambam most definitely did read them (though not in the original Greek) as he quotes them. By the way, Plato himself was a strict monotheist, which you’d know if you’d ever read any of his philosophy. His theory of Emanations might intrigue you as well, if you wish to compare it to Sefiros. The references to avoda zoro in the story of Atlantis are artistic license, not serious theology.
Further, if it is as ossur as you say to read secular literature, and can be meivi lidei michsholim rabim, how on earth could a Rosh Yeshiva even have it on his private bookshelves (not, as you claim, in the institution)? Regardless of whether or not he read it (and he did), how could he have it in his house, in his study, on his shelves? It is not loshon horo to say that he did, as it is not derogatory. You create this arbitrary notion of Gadlus then decide that since in your opinion a Godol would not do it then it is loshon horo to say he did. If a Godol can do it, it is not loshon horo to say he did.
Your responses to NAS are equally misinformed. First, the national syllabus takes into account suitability of content anyway. And you cannot just ‘ask the government’ to be ‘culturally sensitive’, that’s just absurd. They do not set the exams – that is done by various examining boards, and the material must therefore be suitable for ALL the people sitting those examinations. The texts are standardized – everybody doing that board’s exam learns the same text. Nobody is going to set Jewish books as set texts for 1,000,000 non-Jewish kids so as to be ‘culturally sensitive’ to a couple of thousand Jewish ones.
And I’m not even going to get started with Lord of the Rings…
Also, “how to read and understand, to learn communication skills, to learn grammar, to learn how to construct a comprehensible sentence” are not skills that can be learned from Jewish literature because, as has been pointed out many times on this thread, these books display a profound lack of all the above skills. We also need to learn more than simply ‘basic’ maths if we wish to learn many sugyos of Gemoro. My chavrusa couldn’t understand what my problem was with the sugya of 10 trees to a beis cur when I asked him that the square root of 10 is an irrational number, and he is an intelligent young man who, at that point, had been in yeshiva for a number of years. Luckily, the rishonim knew more than simply ‘basic maths’ and therefore answered my question. Try learning eruvin without a good grasp of maths – my uncle, the Rav of Glasgow, said that he wished he’d learned more than just ‘basic maths’ for just that reason. Similarly science – the first perek of Sukka needs a good knowledge of optics, refraction, focal lengths, etc. as well as a fairly high standard of geometry. The Gr’a in hakdomo to Even Shleima says that a lack in knowledge of the 7 ‘amudei hachochmo’ (which includes maths and science) creates a chisoron in their knowledge of Torah. So of course there is a need for core subjects in everyday life if your everyday life includes limud Gemoro. Which it should.
And you continue to be on the internet…