"Parents based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled instructor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily miss the phrase "initial stages" as just figurative language.
But, it could be the crucial part of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been submitted since the unnamed family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the advert has gained attention throughout the press, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that despite first scepticism, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told him they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they want to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor must be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed 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 those concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from China to the UK at the time of seven, and had been brought up understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can act as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily create the goal they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the reality that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
