"A family based in the northern part of London wants to find an remarkable and experienced instructor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally miss the wording "first-steps" as just an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial aspect of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have already been received since the unidentified family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the media, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, said that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the unusual character of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated 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 point "cultural influence had by then become established".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they did not want this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
However, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who express similar doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow transplant the attributes of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from infancy will does not necessarily create the result they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something Adam believes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
