"Parents based in North London wants to find an exceptional and experienced educator to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily skip the term "initial stages" as mere an expression.
However, it could be the crucial element of this unique position posting, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Many of responses have now been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained attention in the press, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding initial doubt, he considered the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
He explained the tutor had to be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who have similar concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert noted that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a representation of UK identity, a person who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will not automatically produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to live many of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
