"Parents residing in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and skilled educator to assist their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might readily miss the phrase "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most significant part of this unique job advert, as it attempts to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have since been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received attention throughout the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, explained that despite early scepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told him they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express those concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can in some way impart the qualities of a English gentleman to a infant child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily produce the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
