Coaching a Baby to Become an 'English Gentleman' – Is It Worth the Money?
"A household based in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily miss the term "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the crucial aspect of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained interest throughout the press, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, explained that in spite of first skepticism, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unusual character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", answered the CEO. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who have these reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been educated experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman to a infant child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will will not necessarily achieve the outcome they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to live several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert believes can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating