"Parents located in north London wants to find an exceptional and qualified educator to support their most junior child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally overlook the wording "initial stages" as mere an expression.
But, it might be the most significant element of this unique position posting, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Many of applications have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received notice throughout the media, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding early doubt, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the unusual nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", answered he. "The family realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who have these reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and practicing both cultures. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can somehow impart the qualities of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily produce the goal they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
