"A family residing in north London seeks an exceptional and experienced instructor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily skip the phrase "initial stages" as mere an expression.
However, it may be the crucial part of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have now been sent in since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received notice throughout the media, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that despite initial doubt, he considered the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual aspect of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, 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 influence had by then set in".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor must be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
A number of in the private teaching field who have similar doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, appears naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a typically English tutor from infancy will will not automatically create the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert believes can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the fact that the global community regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
