"A family located in North London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced tutor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily overlook the term "beginning" as just figurative language.
However, it could be the crucial aspect of this unusual job advert, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been received since the unidentified family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention in the press, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding first scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to impart.
He said the tutor had to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
But, despite all this guidance in "English culture", could the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "They understand this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who express similar reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and practicing both cultures. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can function as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can possibly impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will will not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live numerous 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 selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert hopes can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the fact that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
