"A household located in north London wants to find an remarkable and skilled instructor to assist their youngest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily skip the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.
But, it could be the crucial element of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have since been received since the unnamed family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted attention throughout the media, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, stated that in spite of early skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told him they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to impart.
Adam noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The family realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who have similar concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He explained that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"In my experience, having a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience many of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
