"A household located in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and experienced instructor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily skip the term "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most important element of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have already been submitted since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received notice throughout the news, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding early doubt, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional character of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they did not want this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they wish to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will result in success and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he comments.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", could the child absorb alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", replied he. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who have those doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a British gentleman to a infant child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a typically UK tutor from babyhood will does not automatically produce the outcome they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the fact that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
