"Parents located in north London is looking for an remarkable and experienced tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the most significant aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to hire a tutor for a infant.
Many of applications have since been received since the unidentified family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained interest across the media, with many wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that despite early scepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unusual nature of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told him they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," said the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor had to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "They know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can somehow transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a infant child, appears naive and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from infancy will will not instantly produce the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
