"A family residing in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified instructor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it aims to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have now been received since the unidentified family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained interest in the media, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that in spite of first skepticism, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told Adam they did not want the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they aim to instil.
He said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "They realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who share these doubts.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the age of seven, and had been raised experiencing and living dual heritages. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman to a infant child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly British tutor from infancy will not automatically achieve the goal they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to live many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
