"A family located in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified instructor to support their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally miss the wording "first-steps" as mere an expression.
However, it might be the most significant element of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have since been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that in spite of first skepticism, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual character of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told Adam they wished to avoid history to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," said the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to impart.
He explained the tutor must be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share those concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He explained that he had relocated from China to the UK at the period of seven, and had been brought up knowing and living two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a typically UK tutor from infancy will does not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"I think the reality that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
