"A household residing in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and skilled tutor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily skip the phrase "initial stages" as simple an expression.
However, it might be the crucial element of this unique job advert, as it attempts to find a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted interest in the press, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding early scepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then set in".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid history to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they want to impart.
Adam noted the tutor must be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
A number of in the private teaching field who share those reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can somehow transfer the attributes of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically English tutor from infancy will will not instantly produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
