"A family based in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced educator to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the phrase "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
However, it might be the most significant part of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been submitted since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has gained notice in the news, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that in spite of initial doubt, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they want to instil.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or passion in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons 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, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", said the CEO. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express those reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He noted that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been raised understanding and practicing dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can in some way transfer the qualities of a British gentleman upon a infant child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will will not automatically produce the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the reality that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
