"A family based in the northern part of London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled instructor to support their youngest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily miss the term "initial stages" as just an expression.
But, it could be the most important part of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have now been submitted since the unidentified family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the news, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding early skepticism, he found the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their request, and how immature 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 elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent history to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and open doors.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", answered the CEO. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who express those reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying both cultures. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from babyhood will will not automatically produce the goal they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
