"A household residing in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced tutor to assist their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily skip the wording "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most significant aspect of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have now been sent in since the unnamed family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained attention throughout the news, with several wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding early doubt, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the atypical aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then set in".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to instil.
Adam said the tutor must be someone who attended "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They understand this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who share similar reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert explained that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can function as a representation of UK identity, someone who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
