"A household based in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the term "initial stages" as just an expression.
However, it could be the most significant element of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to find a tutor for a infant.
Numerous of applications have since been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted interest throughout the media, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that in spite of initial doubt, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
But what did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they did not want this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the start here is rather osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they want to cultivate.
He noted the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "The family realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who share similar reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a infant child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will does not automatically produce the outcome they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
