"A household based in north London seeks an extraordinary and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily overlook the wording "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most significant element of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have already been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted interest in the news, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that in spite of first scepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the start here is rather osmotic," said the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor must be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who express these doubts.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and living dual heritages. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can function as a representation of English culture, an individual who can somehow transfer the qualities of a British gentleman upon a infant child, appears naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will will not automatically produce the goal they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to live many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the international society holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
