"A family based in north London seeks an extraordinary and qualified instructor to guide their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the phrase "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the most significant part of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have now been received since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted interest in the media, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding first doubt, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional aspect of their request, and how immature 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 elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
He said the tutor must be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The family know this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who share similar doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated experiencing and practicing both cultures. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can function as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a infant child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will not necessarily create the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something Adam hopes can be educated – and sold.
"I think the situation that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
