"A household residing in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to assist their youngest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily overlook the wording "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important element of this unique job advert, as it aims to hire a mentor for a infant.
Numerous of responses have since been submitted since the unidentified family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received interest in the press, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of early skepticism, he found the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they aim to instil.
He noted the tutor must be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "They realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who express similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can act as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a typically British tutor from babyhood will not necessarily achieve the result they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
