"A household based in north London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled tutor to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally miss the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.
However, it may be the most significant part of this distinctive job advert, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have since been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received interest across the media, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding initial doubt, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to him they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they wish to impart.
Adam noted the tutor had to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped 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 perspective, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The family realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who have those doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been educated understanding and embodying both cultures. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow impart the characteristics of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily create the outcome they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
