"A household located in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced instructor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily skip the phrase "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
However, it might be the most significant part of this unusual job advert, as it aims to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received notice across the press, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that despite early skepticism, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or interest in riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", answered he. "They understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who have these reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can function as a embodiment of Britishness, someone who can possibly impart the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will will not necessarily create the result they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
