"Parents located in north London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere an expression.
However, it could be the crucial part of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been received since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received interest in the media, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, said that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he viewed the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then set in".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family told him they did not want the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they want to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor had to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The family realize this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express these reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been educated knowing and living two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can in some way impart the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily achieve the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
