"A family residing in north London is looking for an remarkable and skilled educator to guide their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily skip the term "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the most significant part of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have now been sent in since the anonymous family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has gained attention throughout the press, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then become established".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the beginning here is rather osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they want to impart.
Adam explained the tutor must be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", replied he. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who express those reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can in some way impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will not necessarily produce the result they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
