"Parents located in north London is looking for an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily skip the phrase "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the crucial aspect of this unique position posting, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have already been submitted since the anonymous family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention in the press, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite initial skepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they understood the atypical aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the education at the outset here is rather osmotic," said the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", said Adam. "They understand this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who have these concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He wrote that he had moved from China to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing both cultures. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can function as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can possibly impart the attributes of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a typically British tutor from early childhood will will not necessarily produce the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
