"A family residing in North London wants to find an exceptional and experienced educator to assist their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily miss the phrase "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it may be the crucial part of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have since been received since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained interest in the press, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding first skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they want to impart.
He said the tutor must be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will result in success and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", said he. "The parents know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who express similar concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had moved from China to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and practicing both cultures. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can possibly impart the qualities of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will will not automatically produce the result they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
