"Parents located in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and qualified tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily skip the wording "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the crucial element of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have already been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received interest across the press, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding initial doubt, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual nature of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the development at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
He explained the tutor must be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who express similar concerns.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He wrote that he had relocated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and living dual heritages. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a living vessel of UK identity, someone who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience several of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
