"A household located in north London is looking for an exceptional and skilled instructor to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily skip the wording "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
But, it may be the most significant aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a infant.
Many of applications have since been received since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received notice across the news, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding early skepticism, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unconventional nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to impart.
Adam said the tutor needed to be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or interest in riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who share similar reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been educated understanding and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can function as a embodiment of Britishness, someone who can possibly transfer the attributes of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will will not instantly produce the goal they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
