"Parents located in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and experienced tutor to support their most junior child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily miss the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.
However, it could be the most important aspect of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has received notice in the news, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that despite initial skepticism, he found the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the unusual character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told him they did not want this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they aim to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor must be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who express similar concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and living dual heritages. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, appears naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will does not automatically create the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
