"A family residing in North London wants to find an exceptional and skilled instructor to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the term "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most important part of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained attention across the media, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite initial skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified 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 conditioning had already become established".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent history to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the development at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor must be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "The parents know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share those doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically British tutor from infancy will not necessarily achieve the outcome they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
