"A household located in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been received since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained notice in the press, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of early skepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid history to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they want to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor must be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who have these doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the time of seven, and had been brought up understanding and embodying dual heritages. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of UK identity, a person who can possibly transplant the attributes of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will does not automatically create the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam believes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
