"A family based in north London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified tutor to support their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily skip the wording "initial stages" as mere an expression.
However, it might be the most important aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have now been submitted since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted notice in the news, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, said that notwithstanding first skepticism, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
But what did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed him they did not want the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor must be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", answered Adam. "The family realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who express similar reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will does not instantly achieve the outcome they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
