"Parents based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled educator to assist their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the term "first-steps" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the most important aspect of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a infant.
Many of responses have since been sent in since the unnamed family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention throughout the media, with numerous asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor must be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – similar types 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 aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, 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 variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in success and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", answered the CEO. "They understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who share those doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a typically English tutor from babyhood will not automatically create the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be taught – and sold.
"I think the fact that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
