"A family located in north London seeks an remarkable and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily miss the wording "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it might be the most important aspect of this unique employment listing, as it aims to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have now been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained attention throughout the news, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that in spite of early scepticism, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to him they did not want this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is rather osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they want to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor must be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", would the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who share those reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can somehow impart the attributes of a British gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a typically English tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to live several of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, English culture is something Adam believes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
