Educating a Toddler to Develop into an 'British Gentleman' – Does It Justify the Cost?

"Parents based in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and qualified instructor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."

Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the term "initial stages" as simple figurative language.

But, it may be the crucial element of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.

Numerous of responses have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".

In recent few weeks, the listing has gained interest across the press, with numerous questioning why?

Innovative Idea

A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that despite early doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".

When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the unusual nature of their request, and how immature their son is.

However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire 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 mean by "cultural leaning"?

It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".

He stated the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their infant.

The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.

Natural Absorption

"Much of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the expert.

It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to cultivate.

The consultant said the tutor must be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.

Expense Not a Factor

The family told Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.

Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".

In the family's view, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and provide access.

"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.

However, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", could the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he lives with anyway?

"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.

Impractical

There are some in the tutoring industry who share these concerns.

Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."

He explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the age of seven, and had been brought up knowing and living both cultures. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.

"The idea that an individual can act as a representation of Britishness, a person who can in some way transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.

"In my experience, employing a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will will not automatically produce the goal they want.

"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the situations they desire for their son."

He stated: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."

Acquiring Englishness

Naturally, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be educated – and marketed.

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