"A household based in north London is looking for an exceptional and qualified educator to guide their youngest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere an expression.
Yet, it may be the most important aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have now been received since the anonymous family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the media, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, said that in spite of early doubt, he found the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual nature of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to impart.
He said the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – similar types 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 performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The parents know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who share these concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been raised knowing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can in some way transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily create the result they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
