"A household based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled tutor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the phrase "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the most significant aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have now been received since the unnamed family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted interest throughout the news, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding first scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid history to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they wish to instil.
He explained the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", said he. "They understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who have these reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and living both cultures. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can function as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow impart the qualities of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
