"A family residing in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and skilled instructor to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally miss the phrase "beginning" as just an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have already been received since the unnamed family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted notice across the news, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
But what does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they did not want this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor must be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or passion in riding, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied he. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who share these concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can possibly transfer the qualities of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily create the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
