"A family residing in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily miss the phrase "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the most significant part of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted interest in the press, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, said that notwithstanding early scepticism, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they did not want this pattern to happen again with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they wish to instil.
Adam noted the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, despite all this instruction in "English culture", could the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Yes", said Adam. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who share those doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the period of seven, and had been raised understanding and living both cultures. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will does not instantly achieve the result they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
