Educating an Infant to Develop into an 'British Gentleman' – Is It Worth the Cost?

"Parents located in north London is looking for an extraordinary and qualified educator to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."

When reading this listing, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.

However, it may be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it aims to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.

Many of responses have now been submitted since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".

During the past few weeks, the advert has received notice in the media, with many asking why?

Innovative Idea

The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that despite initial doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".

When he met the family, he said they understood the unusual aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.

However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".

But what does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?

It's "comprehensive", he replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".

He explained the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed him they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their younger child.

The intention: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.

Subtle Influence

"Much of the education at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated Adam.

It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to impart.

He said the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".

"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.

Money No Object

The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.

More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will result in success and open doors.

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

However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with regardless?

"Absolutely", said Adam. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.

Impractical

A number of in the education sector who share similar doubts.

Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."

He noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and living two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.

"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can in some way transplant the qualities of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he wrote.

"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will will not necessarily create the result they hope for.

"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."

He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."

Acquiring Englishness

Of course, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be educated – and marketed.

"In my view the situation that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating