"A household located in North London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to support their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might readily skip the phrase "initial stages" as simple an expression.
Yet, it may be the most significant element of this unique employment listing, as it aims to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have already been received since the unnamed family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received attention in the media, with many wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, said that despite first scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they understood the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," stated the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, 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 successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "They know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who have similar concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing both cultures. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can somehow impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically English tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
