"Parents based in North London is looking for an exceptional and qualified educator to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "first-steps" as just figurative language.
But, it could be the most significant part of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have since been received since the unnamed family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted notice throughout the media, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding early scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told him they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is kind of osmotic," stated Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor had to be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", might the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken 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
Several in the education sector who have similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and living dual heritages. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can somehow impart the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a typically English tutor from infancy will not automatically create the result they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
