🔗 Share this article

"A family based in north London wants to find an remarkable and experienced tutor to support their youngest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."

Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally miss the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.

However, it could be the most significant element of this unusual position posting, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.

Many of submissions have already been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".

In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention across the press, with several wondering why?

Forward-Thinking Method

A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that despite early doubt, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".

When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.

But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already set in".

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

It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".

He explained the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they did not want the same situation to happen again with their new baby.

The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.

Subtle Influence

"Much of the learning at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.

It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they wish to impart.

Adam said the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.

Money No Object

The family told Adam the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.

More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's view, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.

"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.

But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", could the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?

"Yes", answered he. "They know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.

Overly Optimistic

Several in the private teaching field who express similar reservations.

An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."

The expert explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and living two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.

"The concept that an individual can function as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he commented.

"In my experience, having a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will will not automatically create the outcome they desire.

"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."

He added: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."

Acquiring Englishness

Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and marketed.

"I think the fact that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating