"A family residing in North London seeks an remarkable and skilled tutor to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally overlook the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial element of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have already been received since the anonymous family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the media, with several wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite initial doubt, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual aspect of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.
Adam explained the tutor had to be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who share these concerns.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been educated knowing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, appears naive and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will not automatically achieve the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something Adam hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
