"Parents residing in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and qualified educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the term "first-steps" as simple an expression.
Yet, it may be the crucial aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has gained notice across the press, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that in spite of initial doubt, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical character of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," said Adam.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor must be an individual who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range 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 minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", answered Adam. "They know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who express these doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and living two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, appears naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will not automatically create the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live several of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
