"A family located in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced instructor to guide their youngest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the term "initial stages" as just figurative language.
But, it might be the most significant part of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has received attention in the press, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that despite initial doubt, he considered the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, 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 conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told him they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the start here is somewhat osmotic," said the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they aim to instil.
Adam said the tutor must be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.
But, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", answered he. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who share similar reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can function as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can in some way transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will does not automatically produce the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness 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
