"A family based in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and experienced instructor to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily skip the wording "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most significant element of this unique employment listing, as it aims to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been received since the unnamed family advertised their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted notice in the media, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that in spite of initial skepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to him they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they want to instil.
He noted the tutor had to be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", would the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who share similar reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter explained that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been raised knowing and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can in some way transfer the attributes of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will does not instantly achieve the result they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to live several of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
