"A family located in North London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced educator to support their most junior child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily overlook the phrase "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most significant element of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have since been received since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted notice across the press, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that in spite of initial scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they want to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The parents know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who express those reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated understanding and embodying both cultures. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can possibly transfer the qualities of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will does not instantly create the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam hopes can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
