"A household based in north London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to assist their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily skip the phrase "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most significant part of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have already been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted notice in the press, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that despite initial doubt, he considered the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to instil.
Adam said the tutor must be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", said he. "The parents know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who have similar concerns.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been raised understanding and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can function as a representation of UK identity, someone who can possibly transfer the qualities of a English gentleman to a infant child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from babyhood will not necessarily achieve the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating