"Parents based in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled instructor to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally overlook the term "first-steps" as simple an expression.
But, it could be the crucial aspect of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have already been sent in since the unnamed family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received attention across the media, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of early skepticism, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed him they did not want this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said the CEO.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to impart.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "They realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who have similar doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the age of seven, and had been brought up understanding and practicing dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that an individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can in some way transplant the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will does not automatically achieve the goal they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert believes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
