"A household based in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and skilled educator to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally skip the phrase "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the crucial element of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted interest throughout the news, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they understood the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor must be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", said the CEO. "The family know this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who share those concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He explained that he had relocated from China to the UK at the period of seven, and had been educated understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can function as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a infant child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to live several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be educated – and sold.
"I think the situation that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
