"A family located in north London wants to find an exceptional and experienced tutor to support their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally skip the phrase "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the most significant aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to find a teacher for a infant.
Many of submissions have now been submitted since the anonymous family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted attention throughout the press, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, said that despite first skepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they did not want the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is kind of osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they want to instil.
Adam explained the tutor must be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in success and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
But, despite all this guidance in "English culture", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have those concerns.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can act as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can in some way transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, appears naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will not automatically achieve the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be taught – and sold.
"I think the reality that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
