"Parents based in north London wants to find an exceptional and skilled instructor to assist their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the wording "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it aims to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have now been submitted since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted interest throughout the press, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that despite early scepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," said Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they want to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", said he. "The family realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who share these reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He noted that he had relocated from China to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been raised understanding and embodying dual heritages. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can act as a representation of English culture, someone who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, having a distinctly English tutor from infancy will does not necessarily achieve the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
