"A household based in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and experienced educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the crucial part of this unique job advert, as it aims to find a mentor for a infant.
Many of applications have now been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention in the press, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, said that despite early doubt, he considered the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the atypical aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor must be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "English culture", could the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who have those doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way impart the characteristics of a English gentleman to a infant child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, having a distinctly English tutor from infancy will not necessarily achieve the result they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
