"Parents based in north London is looking for an remarkable and experienced instructor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily miss the phrase "beginning" as simple figurative language.
But, it might be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to find a teacher for a infant.
Many of responses have already been sent in since the unidentified family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained notice across the press, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that despite initial doubt, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told Adam they did not want this pattern to recur with their infant.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor had to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
But, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "They realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who share similar reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from China to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been educated understanding and living dual heritages. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can function as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can in some way transplant the qualities of a British gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will not necessarily create the goal they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live several of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
