"A family based in north London wants to find an remarkable and skilled instructor to assist their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily skip the wording "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the crucial aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Numerous of submissions have since been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained notice across the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite first doubt, he found the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated 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 become established".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.
Adam said the tutor needed to be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", said Adam. "They understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who have similar doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been raised understanding and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can in some way impart the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will will not automatically produce the goal they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the expert hopes can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
