"A household based in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and experienced educator to guide their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily overlook the term "initial stages" as simple figurative language.
However, it might be the crucial aspect of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of applications have since been sent in since the unidentified family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained interest throughout the press, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that in spite of early skepticism, he considered the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is kind of osmotic," said Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who have similar doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the period of seven, and had been raised 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 UK identity, someone who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically UK tutor from early childhood will not instantly achieve the result they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
