"A household residing in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and skilled educator to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally skip the term "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the crucial aspect of this unique position posting, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been received since the unidentified family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained notice throughout the press, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, said that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the atypical character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to instil.
Adam said the tutor must be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The parents know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express these doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and living dual heritages. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can in some way impart the qualities of a English gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will does not instantly achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
