"A family based in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily miss the phrase "first-steps" as just figurative language.
However, it may be the most important part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have now been sent in since the unnamed family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted notice throughout the press, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that in spite of early scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the atypical aspect of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor must be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", said Adam. "The family understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share these reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had moved from China to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can act as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a infant child, appears naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily achieve the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
