"A household based in north London wants to find an remarkable and qualified tutor to guide their youngest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere an expression.
Yet, it might be the most important element of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have now been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted notice in the press, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding first doubt, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they wish to impart.
The consultant said the tutor must be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", could the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who share those concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from China to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can function as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a typically English tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily achieve the goal they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
