"A family located in north London wants to find an exceptional and experienced educator to support their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily miss the term "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the most important element of this unique job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Many of applications have since been received since the unnamed family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention across the media, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding first doubt, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional character of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to instil.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who share similar doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can act as a representation of English culture, someone who can somehow transfer the qualities of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the outcome they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
