🔗 Share this article

"A family residing in North London wants to find an remarkable and qualified tutor to guide their youngest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."

When reading this post, you might readily miss the phrase "initial stages" as mere an expression.

Yet, it could be the most important element of this unique position posting, as it aims to find a teacher for a one-year-old.

Many of responses have already been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".

In recent few weeks, the advert has gained attention throughout the media, with numerous asking why?

Innovative Idea

Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite initial doubt, he considered the concept "visionary", and "innovative".

When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.

However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then set in".

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

It's "everything", he replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".

He said the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.

The intention: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.

Subtle Influence

"A great deal of the development at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the expert.

It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to impart.

The consultant explained the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.

Cost Not Relevant

The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.

Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".

In the family's perspective, guiding 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 definitely a status symbol," he notes.

But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with regardless?

"Certainly", said Adam. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

Several in the education sector who have these doubts.

An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."

The expert noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and living two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.

"The concept that an individual can serve as a representation of English culture, an individual who can in some way transplant the attributes of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he wrote.

"From my perspective, employing a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will not necessarily produce the result they want.

"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to live many of the situations they desire for their son."

He added: "The truth is, personal identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."

Purchasing UK Culture

Certainly, English culture is something Adam believes can be taught – and marketed.

"I believe the reality that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating