"Parents based in north London wants to find an exceptional and qualified instructor to support their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the wording "initial stages" as mere an expression.
Yet, it may be the most significant aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have already been sent in since the anonymous family posted 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 numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that despite first doubt, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told him they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they want to impart.
Adam said the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – 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 may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", said he. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who have these reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can somehow transplant the attributes of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily produce the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the fact that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
