"Parents based in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and qualified tutor to assist their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily miss the wording "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the most significant aspect of this unique position posting, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have since been received since the unidentified family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained notice across the media, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding first skepticism, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, 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 taken hold".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is kind of osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor had to be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who share these reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised understanding and embodying dual heritages. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can somehow impart the attributes of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will does not instantly produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to live many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
