"A family residing in the northern part of London wants to find an remarkable and skilled tutor to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily miss the phrase "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most significant part of this unique position posting, as it aims to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have since been submitted since the unidentified family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention in the media, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, said that despite early doubt, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed him they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they want to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", might the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who share similar reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter explained that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can in some way transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily produce the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
