"A family located in North London is looking for an exceptional and skilled educator to support their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally miss the wording "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the most significant part of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a infant.
Many of responses have since been received since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted notice in the media, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that despite early scepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the unusual aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed him they did not want the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," said the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they wish to instil.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "They realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who express these doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He explained that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been raised understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will will not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, English culture is something Adam thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the global community regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
