"Parents residing in north London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled instructor to support their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it could be the crucial part of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Many of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained interest across the press, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite first skepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is rather osmotic," stated the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they aim to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who express similar doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing both cultures. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can function as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will does not automatically create the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be taught – and sold.
"I think the situation that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
