"A household located in north London is looking for an exceptional and experienced instructor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily overlook the wording "beginning" as mere a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted interest throughout the press, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding early scepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unconventional character of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they wish to impart.
Adam said the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, despite all this instruction in "English culture", might the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", answered he. "They know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who share those doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been raised understanding and living two backgrounds. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not automatically achieve the outcome they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
