"A family located in north London wants to find an remarkable and qualified tutor to guide their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally overlook the term "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the crucial element of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been sent in since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted notice across the press, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding first skepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already set in".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they aim to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", might the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who express those reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the age of seven, and had been raised experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not automatically create the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
