"Parents based in north London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to assist their youngest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the phrase "initial stages" as just an expression.
But, it might be the most important part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been submitted since the unnamed family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained attention in the press, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the atypical character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they want to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or interest in riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", would the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", said he. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express similar concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying dual heritages. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can somehow transplant the attributes of a English gentleman to a infant child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will will not instantly create the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
