"A family based in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified tutor to guide their most junior child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally skip the wording "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
Yet, it may be the most significant element of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have already been sent in since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained interest across the news, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding early skepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unusual character of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is rather osmotic," said the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to instil.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who express those reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the period of 7 years old, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can possibly impart the qualities of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily achieve the result they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the global community regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
