🔗 Share this article

"A family residing in North London wants to find an remarkable and qualified educator to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."

Looking at this post, you might readily miss the term "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.

However, it might be the most important part of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.

Many of submissions have already been submitted since the unidentified family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".

Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted attention throughout the media, with numerous wondering why?

Forward-Thinking Method

Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, said that despite initial scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".

When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.

But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then become established".

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

It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "How you eat, how you speak".

He explained the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their younger child.

The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.

Natural Absorption

"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," said the expert.

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

He explained the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – 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 carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.

Expense Not a Factor

The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.

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

In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and open doors.

"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.

But, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?

"Certainly", answered the CEO. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

A number of in the private teaching field who share those concerns.

Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."

Peter noted that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated experiencing and practicing both cultures. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.

"The notion that a single person can act as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.

"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will does not automatically create the result they want.

"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the situations they aspire for their son."

He stated: "The truth is, personal identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."

Acquiring Englishness

Of course, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be taught – and marketed.

"In my view the situation that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating