"A family residing in north London seeks an exceptional and experienced instructor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally miss the phrase "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
But, it may be the crucial aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been received since the unidentified family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has gained interest throughout the news, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, said that in spite of first skepticism, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the unusual character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they wish to impart.
Adam noted the tutor must be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who express these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He noted that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a representation of English culture, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a English gentleman to a infant child, appears naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a typically English tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily achieve the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the reality that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
