"A family located in North London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced instructor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily miss the term "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most significant part of this unique position posting, as it attempts to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been sent in since the anonymous family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the press, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that despite initial scepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the atypical nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to instil.
He said the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "They understand this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who share similar doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a typically English tutor from infancy will will not automatically create the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
