"A family based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily skip the term "beginning" as just figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial part of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been received since the unidentified family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention across the press, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding early skepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to him they did not want the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor must be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", could the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who express those reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated understanding and living dual heritages. He continued to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can function as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can possibly transfer the qualities of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, appears idealistic and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will not necessarily produce the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert thinks can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
