"A family residing in north London seeks an extraordinary and skilled educator to support their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most significant aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have since been received since the unidentified family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained notice in the press, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that despite first skepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to instil.
He explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", replied he. "They realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who express these reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not necessarily create the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
