"Parents residing in North London wants to find an exceptional and skilled instructor to assist their most junior child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most significant element of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the unidentified family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across 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, said that despite initial doubt, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to instil.
Adam noted the tutor had to be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", might the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have those doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can in some way impart the qualities of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will not instantly achieve the goal they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
