"Parents located in North London is looking for an remarkable and skilled instructor to support their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "first-steps" as simple an expression.
Yet, it might be the most important aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has gained interest across the media, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that despite first skepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the unusual nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they did not want history to recur with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they want to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds 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 doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", answered he. "The family know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the private teaching field who share these reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He noted that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and living dual heritages. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can function as a representation of UK identity, someone who can in some way impart the characteristics of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
