"A family located in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and skilled tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.
But, it might be the most significant element of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a infant.
Many of responses have since been submitted since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted notice across the news, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that despite first skepticism, he considered the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told Adam they wished to avoid history to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they want to impart.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons 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, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", answered he. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who express similar concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the time of seven, and had been brought up knowing and living dual heritages. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
