"A household located in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily overlook the term "initial stages" as simple an expression.
Yet, it could be the most important aspect of this unique job advert, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have now been submitted since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained interest throughout the press, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, said that in spite of initial doubt, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the development at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they want to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who express similar doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can act as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will not automatically create the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience several of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
