"A family based in north London seeks an extraordinary and skilled instructor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as just figurative language.
But, it might be the most significant part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained interest across the media, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of first scepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated 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 point "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied he. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been brought up knowing and practicing both cultures. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can act as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can possibly impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a typically UK tutor from early childhood will not necessarily create the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
