Educating a Baby to Grow into an 'British Gentleman' – Does It Justify the Cost?

"A household located in the northern part of London is looking for an extraordinary and qualified tutor to assist their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."

When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the term "beginning" as simple an expression.

However, it could be the most significant element of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.

Many of submissions have already been received since the unidentified family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".

During the past few weeks, the advert has gained attention in the media, with numerous wondering why?

Innovative Idea

The CEO, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that despite initial scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "innovative".

When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical character of their demand, and how young 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 point "cultural conditioning had by then become established".

What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?

It's "everything", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".

He stated the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their new baby.

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

Subtle Influence

"Much of the development at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," said the expert.

It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to impart.

The consultant noted the tutor had to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".

"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.

Expense Not a Factor

The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.

Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.

"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.

But, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", would the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?

"Yes", answered the CEO. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

A number of in the tutoring industry who share similar doubts.

An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."

He wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been educated knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.

"The notion that an individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.

"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will not instantly create the outcome they desire.

"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."

He stated: "The fact is, self-identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."

Buying Britishness

Of course, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and commercialized.

"I believe the situation that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating