"Parents residing in North London is looking for an exceptional and experienced educator to assist their smallest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally miss the phrase "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most important part of this unusual job advert, as it aims to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has gained attention across the press, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that in spite of early doubt, he found the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told Adam they did not want this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they aim to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor had to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
However, despite all this instruction in "English culture", could the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "The family know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who have those doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from China to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a representation of UK identity, a person who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a typically UK tutor from infancy will will not necessarily achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert hopes can be taught – and sold.
"I think the reality that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
