"Parents residing in north London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified educator to guide their youngest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it may be the most important part of this unique job advert, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have now been received since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted attention across the media, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding early skepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told him they did not want history to happen again with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to instil.
Adam explained the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes 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 perspective, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", said he. "The family know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who share these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been raised understanding and practicing both cultures. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can act as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transplant the attributes of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, appears naive and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will does not automatically achieve the outcome they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
