"A family residing in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to support their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally overlook the term "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the most significant element of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have already been sent in since the anonymous family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained notice across the media, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that despite first doubt, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", said the CEO. "The family know this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who share similar reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will does not automatically achieve the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to experience several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
