"Parents located in north London seeks an exceptional and experienced educator to guide their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily miss the term "initial stages" as mere an expression.
Yet, it could be the most important aspect of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have now been submitted since the anonymous family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention across the media, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding first skepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical nature of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already set in".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they want to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor had to be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", could the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", answered the CEO. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who express these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had emigrated from China to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been raised experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can possibly transfer the qualities of a English gentleman upon a infant child, appears naive and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will will not automatically achieve the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
