"A family based in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and experienced educator to support their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally overlook the phrase "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important part of this unique employment listing, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have already been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted interest in the news, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding first skepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told him they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied he. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who share those reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and practicing both cultures. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can function as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can somehow transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a typically English tutor from infancy will not automatically create the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO 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
