"Parents based in North London wants to find an exceptional and skilled educator to assist their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might readily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it may be the crucial part of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have since been received since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted notice across the news, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, said that in spite of early doubt, he viewed the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get 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 mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they aim to instil.
He noted the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types 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 performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
But, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who express these doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can function as a representation of Britishness, a person who can possibly transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a infant child, appears optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically UK tutor from infancy will not automatically achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
