"A household based in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to support their smallest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally overlook the term "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
But, it may be the most important element of this unique job advert, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received attention in the news, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding early doubt, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor must be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or interest in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", said Adam. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who share similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a typically British tutor from infancy will not necessarily achieve the goal they want.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
