"A family residing in the northern part of London seeks an remarkable and experienced educator to guide their youngest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.
However, it may be the most significant element of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have since been received since the unidentified family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received notice in the media, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, said that in spite of initial skepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their request, and how early in age their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to impart.
He said the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied Adam. "The family understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who share similar doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He noted that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can somehow impart the attributes of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will not instantly produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the expert believes can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
