"A household residing in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled tutor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily skip the term "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the crucial part of this unique job advert, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have already been sent in since the unidentified family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received attention across the press, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of initial skepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already taken hold".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to him they did not want history to recur with their infant.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the education at the start here is kind of osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", said he. "The family realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who have similar concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert noted that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can act as a representation of UK identity, someone who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman to a infant child, seems to me naive and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will does not instantly create the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert thinks can be educated – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
