"Parents located in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and skilled instructor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally miss the wording "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
But, it might be the most important element of this unusual job advert, as it aims to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of applications have now been sent in since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted attention in the news, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, said that despite initial skepticism, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
He explained the tutor must be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "They know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who share those doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and practicing both cultures. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can function as a representation of UK identity, someone who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a typically English tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily produce the result they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
