"Parents based in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily skip the phrase "initial stages" as simple an expression.
However, it could be the most important aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have now been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted notice throughout the news, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical nature of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".
But what does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed him they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to impart.
He said the tutor had to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with regardless?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The family understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who have those reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and living two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can somehow impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will does not automatically achieve the result they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
