"A household based in North London wants to find an remarkable and qualified educator to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the phrase "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the crucial element of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of responses have since been submitted since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has gained notice throughout the press, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding first scepticism, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told him they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to instil.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope 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, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum 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 "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The family realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share these reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and living two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can function as a representation of Britishness, a person who can possibly impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will not instantly achieve the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
