"A family based in north London seeks an remarkable and qualified educator to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily miss the term "initial stages" as just figurative language.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this unique job advert, as it seeks to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of responses have since been sent in since the unidentified family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted interest throughout the media, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that despite initial doubt, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the atypical nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then become established".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the start here is rather osmotic," said Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor needed to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", would the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", answered he. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who share these reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a living vessel of UK identity, someone who can in some way impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a typically UK tutor from babyhood will does not instantly produce the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live several of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the situation that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
