"A family based in North London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally overlook the term "beginning" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important aspect of this unique employment listing, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have since been received since the unnamed family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained attention throughout the news, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding first doubt, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they did not want history to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they want to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who have those doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and practicing both cultures. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can in some way transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a typically English tutor from infancy will will not automatically produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
