"A household based in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and skilled instructor to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily skip the term "initial stages" as simple an expression.
However, it might be the crucial part of this unique position posting, as it aims to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been received since the anonymous family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received attention across the media, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, explained that in spite of initial skepticism, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they wish to impart.
Adam explained the tutor must be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds 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 doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who express these doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and living two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can in some way transplant the qualities of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will will not instantly produce the result they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
