"A family residing in the northern part of London seeks an remarkable and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily overlook the term "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the crucial part of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have now been received since the unnamed family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted notice throughout the press, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first scepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unusual aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is rather osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to instil.
The consultant said the tutor had to be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", answered Adam. "They know this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who share these doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been raised understanding and embodying both cultures. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman to a infant child, appears idealistic and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will does not instantly create the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
