"A household residing in North London wants to find an exceptional and skilled tutor to guide their most junior child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the phrase "initial stages" as simple an expression.
Yet, it may be the crucial aspect of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have already been received since the unidentified family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received interest in the media, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that despite initial skepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained 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 stage "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to him they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they wish to cultivate.
He explained the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", would the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied Adam. "They realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who have these doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and living both cultures. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily create the result they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
