🔗 Share this article

"A household located in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and qualified tutor to assist their youngest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."

Looking at this post, you might naturally overlook the phrase "initial stages" as mere an expression.

However, it could be the most important part of this unique employment listing, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.

Many of applications have already been received since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".

Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted interest throughout the media, with numerous wondering why?

Progressive Approach

The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, said that despite first doubt, he found the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".

When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unconventional nature of their request, and how young their son is.

However, they clarified 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 conditioning had by then taken hold".

What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?

It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".

He explained the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their younger child.

The intention: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.

Osmotic Learning

"A great deal of the learning at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," stated Adam.

It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to instil.

Adam explained the tutor had to be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.

Expense Not a Factor

The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.

Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".

In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.

"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.

But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", might the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?

"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

There are some in the tutoring industry who share similar doubts.

Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, forming one's identity, 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 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.

"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.

"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will not necessarily produce the goal they desire.

"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."

He stated: "The reality is, self-identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."

Acquiring Englishness

Of course, Britishness is something Adam believes can be educated – and marketed.

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