"A household based in north London is looking for an remarkable and skilled tutor to guide their smallest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most significant aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it attempts to find a tutor for a infant.
Numerous of applications have since been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted notice throughout the news, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of initial doubt, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional nature of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or interest in riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who express those doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated understanding and living both cultures. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a representation of English culture, an individual who can somehow impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will not instantly achieve the goal they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
