"A household based in north London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily overlook the wording "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the crucial element of this unusual job advert, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of applications have since been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the advert has received interest throughout the news, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, explained that despite first scepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is rather osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to instil.
Adam noted the tutor must be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the education sector who express these doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been raised experiencing and living both cultures. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can act as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can somehow impart the qualities of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will does not instantly produce the outcome they want.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something Adam believes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
