"Parents based in North London seeks an exceptional and experienced instructor to guide their smallest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the term "initial stages" as just figurative language.
Yet, it might be the crucial aspect of this unique position posting, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Numerous of responses have already been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted interest in the press, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, explained that in spite of early scepticism, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unconventional character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then become established".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they want to instil.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes 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, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
However, despite all this instruction in "English culture", might the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", said he. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express similar doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been educated knowing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can possibly transplant the attributes of a English gentleman onto a infant child, appears optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not necessarily produce the outcome they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to live several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
