"Parents based in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally overlook the term "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most important aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been submitted since the unidentified family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted attention in the media, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite initial skepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to instil.
He said the tutor needed to be someone who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who have similar reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had moved from China to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can function as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the attributes of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the result they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience several of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam hopes can be educated – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
