"Parents residing in north London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled tutor to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the term "initial stages" as simple an expression.
Yet, it may be the most important part of this unusual position posting, as it aims to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been submitted since the unidentified family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention throughout the media, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, said that despite first scepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical 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 held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to instil.
He explained the tutor had to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons 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 minds, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", answered Adam. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who have those concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and living both cultures. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will will not automatically achieve the goal they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to live many of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the expert hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
