"A household based in North London is looking for an exceptional and experienced educator to guide their smallest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally miss the term "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have now been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained attention throughout the news, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding early doubt, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how immature 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 older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to impart.
The consultant said the tutor must be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", answered he. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who share these reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He continued to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly English tutor from infancy will does not automatically create the goal they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
