"A family residing in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified tutor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the crucial element of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have now been received since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted attention across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding early skepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is rather osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they wish to instil.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be an individual who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who express these reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and living both cultures. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can function as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way impart the qualities of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a typically English tutor from babyhood will not necessarily create the result they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
