"Parents located in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and qualified educator to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it may be the most significant part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have since been received since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention in the news, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their search, explained that in spite of early skepticism, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the outset here is kind of osmotic," explained the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to impart.
He explained the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
However, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who express these concerns.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter explained that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and practicing both cultures. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can in some way transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically British tutor from babyhood will not necessarily achieve the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
