Leah Pennisi-Glaser

Leah Pennisi-Glaser studied at Edinburgh University and is a chess teacher and tutor

Saturday

Leah Pennisi-Glaser

Have I grown out of my dyslexia?

From our UK edition

I am 11 years old and in an English class. My teacher asks who wants to read out a passage from Iqbal by Francesco D’Adamo. No one volunteers. She scans the classroom and her gaze lands on me. Wrong kid, miss: I can’t read from left to right. For me, words refuse to stay still; sentences wiggle and oscillate in size, letters disappear, or crop up where they shouldn’t. I like reading from the middle of the page, gulping down whole paragraphs. Focusing on individual words feels counterintuitive and takes time. Two years later, and to no one’s surprise, I am diagnosed as dyslexic. At the time, the diagnosis gave comfort: it was a satisfying explanation for a frustrating situation. But now, a decade on, I feel I’ve grown out of it. Can you really grow out of dyslexia?

Wednesday

Leah Pennisi-Glaser

The confusing sex lives of Gen Z

From our UK edition

What do Hollywood bonkbusters Bridget Jones: Mad About a Boy, Baby Girl, and Lonely Planet have in common? The middle-aged blonde ice maidens at the centre of each film are all women who refuse to age gracefully. Their faces show a toxic desire to cling onto youth.  The movies also all feature large age-gap relationships with the woman as the older party. Thanks to the gender reversal, pop culture is lauding the storylines as inspiration and liberating. But what message are young people – especially guys – supposed to take away? The bald fact is there’s a reason why it’s a social taboo to have sex with people young enough to be your kid. Anyone maintaining otherwise is indulging a luxury belief.

Thursday

Leah Pennisi-Glaser

Don’t cancel Neil Gaiman’s books

From our UK edition

How far can Neil Gaiman fall? The acclaimed author has been accused of sexual misconduct by eight women. One of his accusers, a woman who had been babysitting Gaiman's child, alleges that Gaiman offered her a bath before joining her in the tub naked and assaulting her. Gaiman denies the allegations against him. ‘I'm far from a perfect person,’ he has said, ‘but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.’ Whatever Gaiman did or didn’t get up to in his private life, we should separate the art from the artist Whether or not the allegations against Gaiman are true, the backlash has been swift. Gaiman’s upcoming creative projects have been cancelled. Netflix’s adaptation of his comic book The Sandman will end.

Thursday

Leah Pennisi-Glaser

In defence of ‘traditional’ exams

From our UK edition

You might think that students will be celebrating the news that universities could be moving away from 'traditional' exams in favour of "inclusive assessments," which include open-book tests and take-home papers. They shouldn’t.  I was one of the unfortunate Covid crop of undergraduates who didn’t sit a single exam during their time at university. Yes, I avoided the last-minute nerves about what was going to be in the exam paper – and I saved time not needing to cram during last-minute revision. But the truth is that avoiding exams devalued my degree, so much so that I didn’t bother going to my graduation ceremony.

Saturday

Leah Pennisi-Glaser

What does Labour have against state school Latin students like me?

From our UK edition

What type of person studies Latin in 2024? As a result of Labour’s decision to axe the £4 million Latin Excellence Programme (LEP), the stereotype of the average Latin student – that they are posh and privately educated – is likely to persist. As a state school student who studied Latin – a subject that helped me win a place at a top university – this saddens me greatly. The intellectual vandalism of Labour’s education secretary Bridget Phillipson is hard to forgive. One in two children are taught Latin at private schools, compared to just 2.7 per cent at comprehensives Out of the six of us who studied Latin GCSE at the bog standard state school I attended, I was the only white student. The others came from solidly working-class black and brown Muslim families.