"A family residing in north London seeks an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally miss the phrase "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the most significant aspect of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the unidentified family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the news, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that in spite of first scepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to him they did not want history to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the start here is kind of osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they want to instil.
The consultant said the tutor must be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents know this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the private teaching field who have these doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way impart the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a typically British tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily create the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live many of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, English culture is something Adam hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the international society holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
