"A household based in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and qualified instructor to guide their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might readily miss the wording "beginning" as just figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important aspect of this unusual job advert, as it aims to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have now been received since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained attention across the news, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding initial doubt, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they aim to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor must be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family told him the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or interest in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", said he. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who express similar concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can act as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transplant the attributes of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears naive and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly English tutor from infancy will not automatically create the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
