"Parents residing in north London wants to find an exceptional and qualified instructor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily overlook the wording "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the most significant element of this unique employment listing, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have now been submitted since the unidentified family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the media, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding early scepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to instil.
He said the tutor had to be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", would the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The family know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a representation of English culture, an individual who can possibly impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the result they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert believes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the situation that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
