"Parents located in north London seeks an extraordinary and skilled tutor to support their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the phrase "initial stages" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the most significant aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have since been received since the unidentified family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the news, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that despite early skepticism, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they understood the unusual aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
But what does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of osmotic," said the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they aim to impart.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses 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, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", might the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who express these reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He explained that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can function as a representation of English culture, a person who can possibly impart the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will not necessarily create the goal they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
