"A household located in North London wants to find an remarkable and skilled tutor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "first-steps" as mere an expression.
But, it could be the most significant element of this unique position posting, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted notice in the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that in spite of first scepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they did not want history to happen again with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they aim to instil.
He said the tutor must be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The family understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express those doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from infancy will not necessarily create the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
