"Parents residing in north London seeks an extraordinary and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the phrase "initial stages" as mere an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been received since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received attention across the press, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, explained that despite early doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unconventional nature of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the start here is rather osmotic," stated Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they want to cultivate.
He explained the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "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 appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who share these reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had relocated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been educated understanding and living two backgrounds. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can in some way transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will will not instantly produce the goal they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
