"A household residing in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced educator to guide their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the term "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most significant element of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have now been sent in since the anonymous family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received interest across the press, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that despite early scepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the atypical character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they want to instil.
Adam explained the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", answered Adam. "They understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the private teaching field who express these doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been raised knowing and living dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can function as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can possibly transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will not instantly create the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the reality that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
