🔗 Share this article

"A family based in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."

Upon seeing this listing, you might easily overlook the phrase "initial stages" as just an expression.

Yet, it could be the crucial element of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.

Hundreds of applications have since been received since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".

In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention across the news, with several asking why?

Forward-Thinking Method

The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding first skepticism, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".

When he met the family, he said they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.

But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then set in".

What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?

It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".

He explained the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their new baby.

The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.

Osmotic Learning

"A great deal of the learning at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.

It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they aim to instil.

He noted the tutor must be someone who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".

"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.

Expense Not a Factor

The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.

More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".

In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.

"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.

Yet, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?

"Certainly", said he. "The family know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he explained.

Impractical

Several in the private teaching field who share those reservations.

Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."

He explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.

"The concept that one individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can somehow impart the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he commented.

"From my perspective, employing a typically English tutor from babyhood will does not instantly achieve the goal they desire.

"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live many of the experiences they aspire for their son."

He continued: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."

Acquiring Englishness

Of course, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and sold.

"I think the reality that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating