"A household residing in north London wants to find an exceptional and qualified instructor to assist their smallest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally miss the phrase "initial stages" as simple figurative language.
However, it could be the most important element of this unique position posting, as it attempts to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been submitted since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has received attention throughout the press, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that in spite of early doubt, he viewed the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they want to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
However, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The parents know this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who have those reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He wrote that he had relocated from China to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated experiencing and practicing both cultures. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can act as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily achieve the goal they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
