"A family residing in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the phrase "initial stages" as simple an expression.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been sent in since the unnamed family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted notice across the media, with many wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding first doubt, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.
Adam said the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
But, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who have those doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been raised experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can possibly impart the qualities of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will does not automatically create the outcome they want.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
