"A household located in north London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally skip the wording "initial stages" as just an expression.
But, it might be the most significant aspect of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have since been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received attention throughout the media, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding early skepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they aim to instil.
Adam said the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who express those doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the period of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will not necessarily create the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
