"A household based in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced instructor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "beginning" as just figurative language.
Yet, it may be the crucial aspect of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been submitted since the anonymous family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted attention throughout the press, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding first skepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the atypical character of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they wish to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who share those doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert noted that he had moved from China to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been brought up understanding and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, a person who can possibly transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a typically UK tutor from babyhood will not necessarily produce the goal they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
