"A household located in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and qualified tutor to support their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily overlook the term "initial stages" as mere an expression.
However, it may be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have since been received since the anonymous family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received attention in the media, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that in spite of initial doubt, he found the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already set in".
But what does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the start here is rather osmotic," stated Adam.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to instil.
He explained the tutor must be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he comments.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "The parents know this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who have similar doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He wrote that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been educated understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, someone who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will will not instantly produce the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the reality that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
