"Parents based in north London seeks an extraordinary and experienced instructor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally skip the phrase "beginning" as simple an expression.
Yet, it might be the most important part of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have now been sent in since the unidentified family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received attention throughout the press, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite first scepticism, he viewed the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already taken hold".
But what does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to him they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to impart.
Adam explained the tutor must be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
But, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He noted that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman to a infant child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
