"A family based in North London wants to find an exceptional and experienced tutor to assist their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally miss the wording "first-steps" as just an expression.
But, it may be the most significant aspect of this unusual job advert, as it aims to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have since been received since the unnamed family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has received interest across the press, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, stated that in spite of initial scepticism, he considered the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to him they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," explained the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they aim to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", said Adam. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transplant the attributes of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"In my experience, having a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not automatically create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
