"A family located in the northern part of London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily miss the phrase "beginning" as simple an expression.
Yet, it may be the most significant aspect of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been submitted since the unnamed family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received notice throughout the press, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding first doubt, he found the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid history to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to instil.
Adam said the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in success and provide access.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
However, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "They realize this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who share those reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and living dual heritages. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can act as a living vessel of UK identity, someone who can possibly impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will not automatically achieve the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
