"A household based in the northern part of London wants to find an remarkable and skilled educator to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the wording "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it could be the crucial element of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have now been sent in since the unidentified family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has received notice in the media, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding first skepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual character of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
However, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The family know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who have those doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been educated understanding and embodying both cultures. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not automatically achieve the goal they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
