Tutoring an Infant to Grow into an 'British Gentleman' – Is It Worth the Investment?
"A household located in North London is looking for an exceptional and qualified educator to support their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally skip the phrase "beginning" as just figurative language.
However, it may be the most important part of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been submitted since the anonymous family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained interest across the media, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that in spite of early doubt, he found the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the atypical aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who express similar reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been raised experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can function as a representation of English culture, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically English tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily create the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the international society holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating