"A family located in North London is looking for an remarkable and skilled tutor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily skip the phrase "initial stages" as just an expression.
Yet, it could be the crucial part of this unique job advert, as it aims to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have now been received since the unidentified family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted interest in the news, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding early scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid history to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to instil.
Adam said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The family understand this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the education sector who share these reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can possibly transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a typically British tutor from early childhood will will not instantly produce the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to live many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
