As a child
I often see pages as real children. Not always - obviously - but in the right context.
This is how I would describe a page of Swords child:
He's as bright as a button. He learnt to speak before the age of one, and by 5 he was already reading and writing fluently - sometimes in more than one language. He is a whizz with computers, doing things his parents don't even understand. He is a whizz with words and facts, of course - and that cuts both ways. He can be both clever and cutting. He can even be a brat, but not in the boisterous way of the Page of Wands - rather - he's precocious and answers back, and can irritate the hell out of slower people, including adults. He has no respect for age, only for intelligence and cleverness. He invents words - if he and his brother the page of cups get together, they'll invent a new language complete with dictionary (their motivations will be different).
She always wins at pictionary and trivial pursuit. She is unlikely to be very sporty unless there's a good dose of Wands or Pents in her too. As a girl, she's not very girly, but not necessarily a tomboy either. As a boy, he'll be an early nerd. He knows facts nobody else knows, and juggles and plays with them for fun. He can lie just because he knows he'll get away with it and it makes him feel clever, but he is not a compulsive liar, and generally, he doesn't bother, because he's also not afraid of hurting people with the truth. With time he can learn diplomacy, without sacrificing the truth. She'll answer back in class - not for a dare, but if she thinks the teacher is wrong about something.
She has a strong sense of justice. Justice and idealism are embedded in the Swords court, and it shows up early in the Page. The Sword of Justice is both fair and cutting. He will rarely act unfairly. At his best, that child can be a mediator or an arbiter in other people's fights. His ideals are not like the page of cups dreamy idealism - they are much more abstract.
The young Dumbledore in Harry Potter is the epitome of the Page of Swords - whose early ideal was "the greater good" - which means, sometimes, sacrificing individuals. That is also their notion of justice.
Unless the deck specifically points to the Swords/Air correspondence, I tend to see Swords as fire - they are forged in fire, they are tools of war, hot and purifying. They are the symbols, since forever, of Justice - and Justice is purifying (fire is
pur in Greek - a sad symbol at the moment
, as Greece burns). Therefore in decks where air is not suggested, I also see the page of Swords as a purifying force in its infancy.
Swords also stand for Truth. But as we saw above, a real-life little swords page can lie for the sake of feeling clever. It is as she grows up and confronts idealism, the quest of the Knight, defeat and the meaning of Justice and Truth that he will stop lying and become a truthful man or woman. Neither the King nor the Queen of Swords (in their upright positions) are notorious liars.
So the page of Swords (if not a child) can also be the beginning of truth, the seed of truth. Also - a truthful message. Not always welcome, but truthful.