"A family located in north London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled educator to support their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally overlook the term "initial stages" as mere an expression.
However, it may be the crucial element of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to find a tutor for a infant.
Many of responses have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the media, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite first skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they want to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor had to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
But, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", answered the CEO. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who express these reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been educated experiencing and living both cultures. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, a person who can somehow impart the attributes of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will not automatically create the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
