"A family based in north London seeks an exceptional and experienced educator to support their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally skip the phrase "beginning" as just figurative language.
Yet, it could be the most significant element of this unique position posting, as it aims to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have now been sent in since the unidentified family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted notice in the media, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of first scepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told Adam they did not want the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.
He said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – 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 doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a variety 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 become a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who share these concerns.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from China to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can in some way transplant the qualities of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will not instantly create the goal they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
