"A household based in North London seeks an remarkable and qualified instructor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily skip the term "initial stages" as just an expression.
Yet, it could be the crucial part of this unique job advert, as it attempts to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been received since the anonymous family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained interest throughout the news, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, explained that despite first scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to him they did not want history to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor must be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – 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 carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses 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 view, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", could the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Yes", replied he. "The family realize this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who share similar concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can in some way transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will will not automatically achieve the result they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to live several of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
