"Parents residing in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily miss the phrase "initial stages" as just an expression.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this unique employment listing, as it aims to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have now been sent in since the unidentified family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the press, with many wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that in spite of first doubt, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to impart.
He said the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who have these reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He explained that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the time of seven, and had been educated experiencing and living dual heritages. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can function as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically English tutor from infancy will will not automatically create the result they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
