"A family located in the northern part of London wants to find an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere an expression.
Yet, it could be the most important part of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained interest in the news, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that despite first scepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified 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 age "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the start here is somewhat osmotic," explained the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
He explained the tutor had to be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
However, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", answered Adam. "The family realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who express these concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He explained that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the time of seven, and had been educated knowing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a English gentleman onto a infant child, appears naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily produce the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience many of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
