"A family based in north London wants to find an remarkable and skilled instructor to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily miss the wording "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it may be the most significant aspect of this unique job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have since been received since the unidentified family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained interest throughout the press, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that in spite of initial scepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical character of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
He said the tutor had to be someone who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", could the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "They realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who express similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He wrote that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, seems to me naive and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily produce the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to live many of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
