"A household based in North London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily overlook the phrase "beginning" as mere a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this unique job advert, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have already been submitted since the anonymous family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received notice throughout the news, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, explained that in spite of early skepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the atypical aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they explained 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 age "cultural bias had by then set in".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the start here is somewhat osmotic," explained Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to instil.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child absorb alleged cultural influence from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The family know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who express similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert explained that he had relocated from China to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly English tutor from infancy will does not instantly create the outcome they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to live many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
