"A family residing in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified tutor to support their youngest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally miss the term "initial stages" as mere an expression.
Yet, it could be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to find a mentor for a infant.
Many of responses have already been sent in since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received attention throughout the press, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that despite initial scepticism, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the atypical aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then set in".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.
He noted the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", might the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", replied he. "The family realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who express those reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of seven, and had been raised experiencing and practicing both cultures. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can function as a representation of English culture, an individual who can possibly transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily achieve the result they want.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live many of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
