"Parents residing in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and skilled instructor to support their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the phrase "beginning" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it might be the crucial aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been sent in since the unnamed family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has gained attention throughout the press, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding first skepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they did not want history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," explained Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they wish to impart.
He explained the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or passion in riding, winter sports, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", said Adam. "They know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who share those doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been raised knowing and practicing both cultures. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that an individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly British tutor from infancy will will not necessarily produce the result they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something Adam believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
