"A family located in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and experienced instructor to support their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally miss the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.
Yet, it might be the most significant aspect of this unique job advert, as it aims to find a teacher for a infant.
Many of applications have since been submitted since the unidentified family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has received attention across the media, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of first skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told him they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they want to impart.
He said the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", said he. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who express similar reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been raised understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow transplant the attributes of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from infancy will does not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the reality that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
