"Parents located in north London wants to find an remarkable and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally miss the term "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it may be the crucial aspect of this unusual position posting, as it aims to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been received since the anonymous family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted interest in the news, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding first skepticism, he found the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to impart.
The consultant said the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The family 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 said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who have similar reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, a person who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a typically British tutor from babyhood will not automatically achieve the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
