"A household based in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and experienced instructor to assist their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might readily skip the wording "first-steps" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the most important part of this unusual position posting, as it aims to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have already been received since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained notice across the media, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding first doubt, he found the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the unusual aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their infant.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor must be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will result in achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied Adam. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who express similar doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can act as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a typically UK tutor from babyhood will not automatically achieve the result they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience many of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam believes can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the fact that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
