"Parents located in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and skilled educator to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the wording "initial stages" as mere an expression.
However, it could be the crucial aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained notice in the news, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that in spite of first skepticism, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unusual character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent history to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they want to impart.
He said the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who express these concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a typically English tutor from early childhood will not necessarily produce the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the expert believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
