"Parents located in North London is looking for an remarkable and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily overlook the term "first-steps" as just figurative language.
But, it may be the crucial aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have since been sent in since the unidentified family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the advert has gained attention in the press, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that despite initial skepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the start here is rather osmotic," explained the expert.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they aim to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument 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 success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "The family know this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who have similar doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the period of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can somehow impart the attributes of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will not automatically produce the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
