"A household residing in north London wants to find an exceptional and skilled tutor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally overlook the phrase "beginning" as simple figurative language.
However, it could be the crucial aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have since been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received interest across the press, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that despite first scepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they did not want this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the outset here is rather osmotic," explained Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they want to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Yes", replied he. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who share those concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been educated understanding and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way impart the attributes of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will not instantly create the result they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert believes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
