"A household located in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified instructor to assist their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily skip the term "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the crucial element of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been received since the anonymous family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained attention throughout the media, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that in spite of initial scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then become established".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to him they wished to avoid history to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they want to instil.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", said he. "The family know this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who share similar reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can possibly transfer the qualities of a English gentleman upon a infant child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will not instantly produce the result they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert believes can be educated – and sold.
"I think the reality that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
