"A family located in north London is looking for an remarkable and skilled instructor to support their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally skip the term "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to find a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention in the news, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that despite early skepticism, he found the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, 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 point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they did not want the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they want to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types 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 may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The family realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who have these doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can act as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience several of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, English culture is something the expert thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
