"A household residing in North London seeks an exceptional and skilled instructor to support their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally miss the wording "beginning" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been submitted since the unnamed family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received interest across the media, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite initial scepticism, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told him they did not want history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to impart.
He explained the tutor needed to be an individual who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes 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 minds, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied he. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who share those reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He noted that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can somehow transplant the qualities of a English gentleman upon a infant child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from infancy will will not necessarily create the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be educated – and sold.
"I believe the fact that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
