"Parents residing in the northern part of London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled educator to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally skip the wording "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the most important element of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been received since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained attention in the press, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that in spite of first doubt, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed him they wished to avoid history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," explained Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
He noted the tutor had to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes 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, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
But, despite all this instruction in "English culture", might the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who have those reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can function as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can somehow impart the attributes of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will does not instantly produce the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
