Poppin over to Moscow: A starchy English education is a booming export industry

Poppin over to Moscow: A starchy English education is a booming export industry

Nov 18th 2013 | From The World In 2014 print edition

In 2014 Hollywood will celebrate the 50th birthday of “Mary Poppins”, an adaptation of a children’s book about a magic nanny. The film was released on August 27th 1964 and starred Julie Andrews, a reassuringly well-spoken English actress, as the eponymous governess. Arriving in London by flying umbrella, Mary Poppins proceeds to reform the dysfunctional banking family that employs her. The film’s producer, The Walt Disney Company, enjoyed an even happier ending: “Mary Poppins” has made $640m (adjusted for inflation) at the box office. Half a century later, young Britons have found a different way to make money from a starchy English education. For graduates of the country’s best universities, bagging a berth at a law firm or bank is harder than it once was. Britain’s economy is sluggish, and in London international high-flyers compete for the top posts. Arts graduates grumble that all the good jobs require degrees in maths, science or economics these days. They are increasingly drawn to the tutoring and governess agencies scattered across the plusher parts of London. No shortage of work here: the Mary Poppins treatment is one of the country’s booming export industries.

Recruitment starts with an interview. Flying umbrellas are not essential; instead, talent-spotters look for clipped tones, a degree from an ancient university (preferably Oxford or Cambridge) and a dash of English eccentricity—“not too much, though,” reports one modern-day Mary, “they don’t like outright weirdos.” Ability to teach or bring up children comes fairly low down the list: “They gave me much more guidance on how to dress than on how to educate,” says another.

If successful, the candidate is invited to apply for jobs. At the exclusive end of the market the locations are exotic and the clients colourful. Three months to spare? Join a Kazakh adolescent on his father’s yacht in Antibes; history lessons in the morning, jet-skiing in the afternoon. Want to see the world? The emir’s daughter needs a companion for a gap year. Need money for your doctorate? Olga, an ambitious actress, will fly you to Moscow once a month for lessons in English etiquette.

But the work can be tough, too. The wealthy of the emerging world may want their children whittled into models of English poise and manners, but they (and their offspring) sometimes treat their staff badly. On his first day, one tutor was shooed away from the front door of a stately home by a butler and told to use the servants’ entrance. Another, a recent Oxford graduate, recalls a miserable summer in Saudi Arabia—the other staff envied him, his employers looked down on him and his young charge insisted on taking his French lessons while playing golf.

Yet obnoxious clients are not enough to discourage the young, globe-trotting Poppinses. Demand for their services exceeds supply; some boast they earn more than their friends in conventional graduate jobs: £1,000 ($1,650) a week if they are lucky. But then a spoonful of sugar always did help the medicine go down.