"A household located in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily overlook the wording "initial stages" as just an expression.
But, it might be the most important part of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have now been received since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained interest throughout the press, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their search, stated that despite early skepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the unusual nature of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told Adam they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "They understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who express these concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He explained that he had emigrated from China to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying both cultures. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the situation that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
