"Parents located in North London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced tutor to assist their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most significant aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of applications have already been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained notice in the news, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that in spite of early skepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they want to impart.
Adam explained the tutor must be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", would the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", replied he. "They realize this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will not necessarily achieve the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
