"Parents based in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified educator to support their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily overlook the wording "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the most significant aspect of this unusual position posting, as it aims to find a mentor for a infant.
Numerous of responses have already been received since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted notice across the news, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that despite initial scepticism, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," said the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be someone who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", replied he. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who express these concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from infancy will will not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
