"A family based in north London wants to find an exceptional and experienced tutor to support their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally overlook the wording "initial stages" as just an expression.
But, it could be the crucial element of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have already been submitted since the unidentified family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention in the press, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the atypical character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor must be someone who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, skiing, creative fields and music 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 picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "English culture", would the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied Adam. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who share these reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from China to the UK at the period of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can somehow transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
