"A family residing in North London is looking for an exceptional and qualified educator to support their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily overlook the wording "first-steps" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the crucial part of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have since been received since the anonymous family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained notice throughout the press, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unusual aspect of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already taken hold".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed him they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their infant.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is rather osmotic," stated Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to instil.
Adam noted the tutor must be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", answered the CEO. "The parents know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share these concerns.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can function as a representation of Britishness, someone who can possibly impart the attributes of a British gentleman to a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will will not instantly create the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
