"Parents residing in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified educator to support their smallest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
But, it could be the crucial aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have since been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received attention throughout the press, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he found the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual character of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to impart.
Adam explained the tutor must be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", could the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", replied he. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share similar reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been raised understanding and living both cultures. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can somehow transplant the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, having a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will not instantly achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
