"Parents located in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled instructor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily overlook the phrase "initial stages" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the most important aspect of this unique position posting, as it attempts to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have since been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received interest across the media, with many wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that in spite of initial doubt, he considered the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unusual character of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they did not want the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
Adam noted the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", would the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who share similar concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He noted that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and practicing both cultures. He continued to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can somehow transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly British tutor from infancy will not necessarily create the result they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
