"A family located in North London seeks an extraordinary and skilled tutor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might readily overlook the term "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most significant part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been received since the unidentified family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted attention across the press, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their search, explained that despite initial scepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they understood the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid history to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
He noted the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", replied he. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who share similar doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and living both cultures. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can in some way impart the qualities of a English gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will will not instantly produce the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity can not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam believes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
