"A family based in the northern part of London seeks an remarkable and skilled educator to assist their youngest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily skip the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.
However, it could be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it aims to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received attention in the news, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that despite early scepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family told Adam they did not want the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor had to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who express similar concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can in some way impart the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a typically British tutor from infancy will will not instantly create the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert hopes can be educated – and sold.
"I think the reality that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
