"A family located in North London is looking for an remarkable and skilled tutor to guide their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily miss the phrase "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
But, it may be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a infant.
Many of applications have since been sent in since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the media, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that in spite of initial doubt, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to instil.
He noted the tutor had to be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", said he. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who share similar concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can function as a representation of English culture, someone who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will not automatically achieve the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live many of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
