"Parents based in north London seeks an extraordinary and experienced instructor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily skip the wording "first-steps" as just figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important element of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to find a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have now been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained interest in the news, with several wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that despite initial scepticism, he considered the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they want to cultivate.
He explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that 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 learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and provide access.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", said he. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had relocated from China to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will not instantly achieve the result they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be taught – and sold.
"I think the reality that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
