"A family residing in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily overlook the term "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most important aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the listing has received interest in the media, with numerous asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding early scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to instil.
He said the tutor had to be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
However, despite all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The family realize this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who have these doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been raised understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a 12-month-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will not necessarily produce the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
