"Parents located in north London wants to find an remarkable and skilled educator to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally skip the phrase "beginning" as simple an expression.
Yet, it may be the crucial aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have already been received since the anonymous family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has received attention in the news, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding early skepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual character of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already become established".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they want to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
However, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", said he. "The family realize this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who express similar concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing dual heritages. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way transplant the attributes of a English gentleman upon a infant child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will will not instantly create the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity can not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
