Tutoring an Infant to Grow into an 'English Gentleman' – Does It Justify the Money?

"Parents located in North London seeks an remarkable and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."

Looking at this listing, you might naturally skip the term "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.

However, it could be the most significant part of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to find a teacher for a infant.

Hundreds of responses have already been submitted since the unidentified family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".

Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained notice across the press, with several wondering why?

Innovative Idea

The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that despite initial doubt, he considered the idea "visionary", and "innovative".

When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.

However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then become established".

What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?

It's "everything", the expert replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".

He said the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.

The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.

Natural Absorption

"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated the expert.

It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to impart.

The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".

"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.

Cost Not Relevant

The family informed the expert the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.

Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety 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 minds, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.

"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.

Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?

"Yes", replied Adam. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.

Overly Optimistic

A number of in the private teaching field who express these concerns.

Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."

He explained that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.

"The notion that an individual can act as a representation of UK identity, someone who can somehow transplant the attributes of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.

"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly British tutor from infancy will not automatically achieve the goal they want.

"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to live several of the experiences they hope for their son."

He added: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."

Buying Britishness

Of course, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be educated – and commercialized.

"I believe the fact that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating