"Parents residing in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced instructor to assist their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might readily skip the phrase "initial stages" as simple figurative language.
However, it may be the most significant part of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have already been sent in since the unidentified family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received notice in the media, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding first scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the unusual aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the start here is rather osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they wish to impart.
He said the tutor must be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", would the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", said he. "They know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the education sector who have those doubts.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and living two backgrounds. He continued to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can possibly transplant the attributes of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will not automatically produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something Adam hopes can be educated – and sold.
"I think the situation that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
