Author: paige laevy

On a Tuesday afternoon, enter a Knightsbridge real estate showroom and pay close attention. You’ll hear bits of Mandarin spoken between the espresso machine and the marble reception desk, a brief Arabic conversation, and possibly a more subdued Japanese exchange close to the brochure rack. The room would have sounded almost entirely English ten years ago. Paystubs are reflecting the change that was made. Fluent speakers of a second language are now able to command commissions that are significantly higher than those of their English-only colleagues, and some of the larger firms no longer pretend that this is a soft…

A portfolio manager I’ve spoken with intermittently for years sent me a one-line message on a muggy Tuesday in late September: “We’re done buying Nvidia.” “Look east.” He didn’t need to elaborate, and he didn’t. The same sentiment has emerged in research notes, dinner conversations, and quiet rebalancing within some of the biggest funds in the world over the past few months. It appears that Wall Street has taken notice of something that hasn’t yet made headlines: bilingual AI and the businesses developing it could be the next big thing in a field that has so far been dominated almost…

When a school gate closes for the final time, there’s a subtle sadness to it. The slow kind, the kind that takes over a town and transforms it, is more devastating than the dramatic kind that makes the front pages for weeks. Ramsgate is currently coping with that. In what seems like a single news cycle, St. Lawrence College, an independent Christian school located on the Kent coast since 1879, has appointed administrators and closed its doors to the majority of its approximately 500 students, ending 146 years of operation. On a weekday morning, you would typically hear the typical…

The problem with rural school bus stops is that they appear almost too serene to be hazardous. A section of two-lane road, a few mailboxes, and a porch light that was still on in the early morning. On May 7, just after 7:15 a.m., Jeremiah Rutkowski, a junior in high school, went outside the Rutkowski residence in Bouckville to board the Madison Central School District bus. It was something he had done hundreds of times. Watching the security footage now gives me the impression that he had no reason to anticipate anything different on this specific Wednesday. Then, without slowing…

Nowadays, if you walk into practically any university common room, the conversation will eventually turn to the same awkward topic. A dubious essay is mentioned. Another person brings up a coworker who has begun incorporating ChatGPT prompts into their seminar handouts in a rather defiant manner. While stirring their tea, a third person remains silent, obviously waiting for the conversation to move on. Despite the fact that the technology has been in students’ browsers for more than three years, there seems to be a lack of consensus regarding the script. This restlessness is remarkably well captured in a recent qualitative…

The morning at Kirklees College started like any other Huddersfield Tuesday, the usual drift of students with rucksacks, the smell of coffee from the cafés near the main entrance, the low hum of buses pulling into Chapel Hill. And then, somewhere around mid-morning, the doors began to lock. Not loudly, not dramatically. Just quietly, one after another, in that procedural way schools have rehearsed but rarely had to use. By the time most parents in Kirklees realised something was wrong, the lockdown was already underway. An email had landed in the college’s inbox, threatening enough in tone to force an…

They’ll be there before the students when you walk into a Manchester school gymnasium on a hot June morning. Pens are arranged neatly on wooden desks by men and women wearing soft-soled shoes and swinging lanyards. They almost automatically speak in hushed tones. Exam invigilators are rarely acknowledged, which is, in a way, the whole purpose of their work. However, there is one question they are asked more frequently than any other, usually by inquisitive friends at dinner parties or by individuals who are thinking about doing the work themselves. In reality, how much does it pay? The truth is…

On Tuesday, just after sunrise, the notices began to arrive in parents’ inboxes. These are the kind of clear district emails that attempt to sound composed even when the news isn’t. More had arrived by Wednesday morning. Winslow Township, Garfield. Bergen’s north. Hamilton. Park Prospect. Plainfield. Scotch Plains-Fanwood, but only for the younger grades. Township of Union. They all made the same announcement in slightly different words, such as “early dismissal,” “modified schedule,” or “please make arrangements,” and they all subtly pointed to a long-standing issue that New Jersey has been ignoring. May is just around the corner. That’s the…

On the days that a bill enters the Committee of the Whole House, there is a certain silence within the Beehive. Employees move more quickly than normal. Folders thicken. And this week, Erica Stanford’s Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill is subtly evolving into something more ambitious than it started out as, somewhere between the printed amendment papers and the hallway chatter. The Minister of Education has now presented a new set of amendments after the bill passed its second reading last Thursday, May 14. They sound like technical adjustments on paper. In actuality, they resemble the preliminary blueprint…

If you’ve ever been to Des Moines during track week, you are already aware of the distinct buzz that surrounds Drake Stadium in late May. It’s not very loud. It’s not overly dramatic. It’s the sound of coaches checking their watches despite having the schedule printed on their clipboards for weeks, buses arriving early, and spikes being checked again on the warm-up track. The 2026 Iowa High School State Track and Field Championships are scheduled to start on May 21 and run through May 23. As is customary, the meet feels more expansive than a sporting event. The renowned blue…