"A family located in North London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the phrase "first-steps" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the most significant part of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to find a mentor for a infant.
Many of submissions have since been received since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted attention across the media, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that despite first skepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical aspect of their request, and how early in age their son is.
But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they aim to instil.
Adam explained the tutor must be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who express these doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been raised knowing and living two backgrounds. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will does not instantly produce the outcome they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be educated – and sold.
"I think the reality that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
