"A family residing in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily overlook the term "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most significant part of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted attention throughout the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, said that despite early skepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual nature of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to 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 the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The family realize this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who share similar doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the period of 7 years old, and had been educated experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can act as a representation of UK identity, someone who can in some way transfer the attributes of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will does not instantly create the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
