"Parents residing in North London seeks an extraordinary and skilled educator to support their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally skip the wording "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
But, it might be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been submitted since the anonymous family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained attention across the press, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid history to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they wish to impart.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", would the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with regardless?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who share those reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert noted that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the age of seven, and had been brought up knowing and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a typically English tutor from early childhood will not automatically achieve the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
