"Parents located in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and experienced tutor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily skip the term "initial stages" as simple an expression.
But, it might be the most important aspect of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of responses have now been received since the anonymous family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received notice across the press, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that in spite of first scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the atypical aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed him they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the outset here is rather osmotic," explained the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", would the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who share these doubts.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can function as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a typically UK tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily achieve the goal they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
