"A family residing in North London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily overlook the wording "initial stages" as just an expression.
However, it may be the most significant element of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been sent in since the unnamed family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has received attention in the news, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first skepticism, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unconventional character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid history to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," explained the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they wish to impart.
Adam said the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", said he. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who share similar concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He explained that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been brought up knowing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will not necessarily achieve the result they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something Adam hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"I think the reality that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
