"A household based in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and experienced educator to support their most junior child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the phrase "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
But, it could be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have now been received since the unidentified family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has received notice throughout the news, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, said that despite early skepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional character of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to him they did not want this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to instil.
The consultant noted the tutor must be someone who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", said he. "The parents know this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who share these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing both cultures. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a typically UK tutor from early childhood will not automatically create the goal they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the expert believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
