"Parents based in the northern part of London wants to find an remarkable and experienced educator to support their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the crucial aspect of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have since been submitted since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the media, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding early doubt, he considered the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual character of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family told him they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is rather osmotic," stated Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to impart.
Adam said the tutor must be someone who went to "prestigious academies – 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 performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied he. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who share similar reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and living both cultures. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a typically English tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the result they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
