"Parents located in north London seeks an exceptional and experienced instructor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might readily miss the phrase "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
However, it might be the most significant part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been received since the unnamed family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention across the news, with numerous asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that despite initial doubt, he found the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they understood the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they did not want history to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," explained the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they want to impart.
He noted the tutor must be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who express similar doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and embodying both cultures. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can possibly transplant the qualities of a British gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically UK tutor from infancy will will not necessarily create the goal they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
