"Parents based in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and experienced tutor to guide their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily miss the phrase "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of responses have now been submitted since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received interest across the news, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that despite first doubt, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with regardless?
"Yes", said Adam. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the education sector who express those reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He explained that he had moved from China to the Britain at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and practicing both cultures. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can somehow transfer the qualities of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will does not automatically create the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the global community regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
