"Parents residing in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and skilled instructor to support their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.
However, it may be the most significant aspect of this unique job advert, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted interest across the media, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding early skepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the unconventional nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they did not want history to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they want to impart.
Adam explained the tutor had to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety 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 view, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", would the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", replied he. "They understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who share similar doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been raised experiencing and living both cultures. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will will not automatically create the goal they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something Adam thinks can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
