"A household located in north London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled educator to guide their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the phrase "beginning" as mere an expression.
However, it may be the most important element of this unusual job advert, as it aims to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have since been submitted since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received interest in the press, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that despite early doubt, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the unusual aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family informed him they did not want history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," stated the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to instil.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who express these concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically UK tutor from babyhood will not necessarily achieve the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to live many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something Adam hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
