"A family based in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and experienced tutor to assist their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
Yet, it may be the most significant aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to find a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of submissions have already been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received notice across the media, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that in spite of early doubt, he found the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual character of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to him they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to instil.
He noted the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The family understand this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who express those concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter explained that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can possibly impart the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not automatically produce the outcome they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
