"A family residing in north London seeks an remarkable and skilled instructor to support their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as just an expression.
However, it might be the most significant element of this unique job advert, as it attempts to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have already been received since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received attention throughout the press, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they want to instil.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", replied he. "The family know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the education sector who have those doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the age of seven, and had been brought up knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can function as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can possibly transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from early childhood will not necessarily create the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
