"Parents located in North London is looking for an remarkable and skilled educator to assist their youngest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally overlook the term "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most significant aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to find a tutor for a infant.
Numerous of submissions have now been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted attention throughout the news, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that in spite of early doubt, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional character of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated 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 age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid history to recur with their infant.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they want to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Absolutely", replied he. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who share those concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had moved from China to the UK at the time of seven, and had been raised knowing and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily achieve the goal they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the fact that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
