"A family located in North London seeks an extraordinary and experienced instructor to support their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily overlook the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.
Yet, it could be the crucial aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a infant.
Numerous of responses have already been sent in since the unnamed family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has received attention throughout the press, with several wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, stated that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they aim to impart.
He said the tutor needed to be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have those concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and living two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically UK tutor from infancy will does not automatically achieve the outcome they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO believes can be educated – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
