"A family residing in north London is looking for an exceptional and skilled instructor to support their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as simple figurative language.
But, it could be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a infant.
Numerous of responses have already been sent in since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted notice in the media, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that despite initial doubt, he considered the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then set in".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to impart.
Adam noted the tutor must be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
But, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who express similar doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can in some way impart the attributes of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will will not instantly produce the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to live many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something Adam hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
