"Parents residing in North London is looking for an exceptional and qualified instructor to assist their smallest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the crucial aspect of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the unidentified family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained notice throughout the news, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that despite first scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they did not want history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the start here is somewhat osmotic," explained the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they want to instil.
Adam explained the tutor must be an individual who went to "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 aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
However, despite all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who share those reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had moved from China to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will does not instantly create the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
