"A household based in north London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily skip the phrase "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
However, it could be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted interest in the media, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who express those concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from China to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can possibly transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will will not automatically produce the outcome they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam believes can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
