"Parents based in north London seeks an remarkable and skilled instructor to support their most junior child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial aspect of this unique job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been received since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention throughout the media, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite initial skepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then become established".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor must be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "The family realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who share these reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and living dual heritages. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can somehow impart the attributes of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the outcome they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
