"Parents based in north London is looking for an exceptional and qualified tutor to assist their most junior child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally miss the phrase "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the crucial aspect of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted attention across the news, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding initial doubt, he found the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they want to instil.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "They realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who express similar reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and living both cultures. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can function as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can possibly transfer the attributes of a British gentleman upon a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will will not automatically create the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
