"A household located in North London wants to find an remarkable and experienced educator to support their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might readily miss the phrase "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been received since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has received attention in the news, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that despite initial doubt, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they want to instil.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", said he. "They realize this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who share these reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He explained that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can act as a representation of UK identity, a person who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically UK tutor from infancy will does not automatically achieve the goal they want.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be educated – and sold.
"I think the reality that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
