"A family based in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified tutor to assist their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily skip the wording "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it might be the crucial aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it attempts to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have since been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted attention throughout the press, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding first skepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the unusual aspect of their request, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told Adam they did not want history to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to impart.
Adam said the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or interest in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", could the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Absolutely", replied Adam. "They understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who have those doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had moved from China to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will does not automatically create the outcome they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
