"A household based in north London wants to find an remarkable and experienced educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily skip the term "initial stages" as simple an expression.
Yet, it might be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been sent in since the unnamed family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted notice in the press, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid history to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor must be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "The family realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can function as a representation of UK identity, someone who can in some way transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, appears optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically British tutor from infancy will not instantly achieve the result they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be educated – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
