"Parents based in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and skilled educator to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the phrase "beginning" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important part of this unique job advert, as it attempts to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been received since the unnamed family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has gained notice in the news, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first skepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they did not want the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the start here is rather osmotic," stated the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they wish to instil.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
However, despite all this instruction in "English culture", could the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who express similar concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from China to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated knowing and living dual heritages. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can somehow impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will does not automatically achieve the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something Adam thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the international society holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
