"A household based in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the wording "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
But, it may be the most important element of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have already been submitted since the unidentified family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted interest throughout the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that in spite of initial doubt, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they did not want history to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to impart.
Adam noted the tutor must be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who share similar concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been educated experiencing and living both cultures. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can possibly impart the qualities of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a typically English tutor from infancy will not instantly create the goal they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
