"Parents based in North London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled tutor to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily overlook the wording "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most important aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been received since the unidentified family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received notice across the news, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that despite initial skepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated 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 age "cultural bias had by then become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to cultivate.
He explained the tutor must be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with regardless?
"Yes", replied he. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who have these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from China to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been educated knowing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can in some way transplant the qualities of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will not automatically create the goal they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live many of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
