"A family located in north London is looking for an exceptional and qualified tutor to support their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the phrase "initial stages" as just an expression.
However, it may be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received interest in the press, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that despite initial doubt, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they aim to impart.
The consultant said the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who have these doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter noted that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the period of seven, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can somehow impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a typically English tutor from babyhood will does not instantly produce the result they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to live several of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the international society holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
