"A household based in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally overlook the wording "first-steps" as mere an expression.
Yet, it might be the most significant part of this unique job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the anonymous family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention throughout the press, with several wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, said that notwithstanding first skepticism, he considered the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the unusual character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
However, despite all this instruction in "English culture", might the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", answered he. "They understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who share those doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been educated knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can possibly impart the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will does not automatically create the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy several 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 chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something Adam believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
