"Parents based in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily skip the term "beginning" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it could be the most important element of this unique position posting, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of applications have already been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained interest in the press, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that in spite of first scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the atypical aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to impart.
The consultant said the tutor had to be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who express those reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He explained that he had emigrated from China to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been raised knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can possibly impart the characteristics of a English gentleman to a infant child, seems to me naive and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, having a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will not necessarily produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
