"A household located in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified educator to assist their most junior child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily miss the wording "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the crucial element of this unique employment listing, as it aims to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained notice across the news, with many wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that in spite of initial scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their infant.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the start here is kind of osmotic," stated Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to impart.
He said the tutor must be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds 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 may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who express those concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and living both cultures. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will not necessarily create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to experience many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
