"A household residing in North London is looking for an exceptional and experienced tutor to support their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily overlook the wording "initial stages" as just an expression.
Yet, it could be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has received notice in the press, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that in spite of early skepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unusual character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid history to recur with their infant.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied he. "They know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who share those concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of seven, and had been brought up understanding and living two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can possibly impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will will not automatically create the outcome they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
