"A family located in north London is looking for an remarkable and qualified tutor to guide their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily skip the term "initial stages" as simple an expression.
Yet, it could be the most significant element of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have since been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted notice in the news, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that in spite of initial scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", would the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who share similar doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a typically British tutor from infancy will not instantly produce the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
