"Parents based in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and qualified tutor to assist their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally overlook the wording "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the crucial part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have already been received since the anonymous family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained interest throughout the press, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite initial skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unusual aspect of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent history to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they want to impart.
Adam said the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "English culture", could the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied he. "The family know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, having a distinctly British tutor from infancy will will not necessarily create the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert believes can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
