"A family located in north London is looking for an remarkable and qualified tutor to guide their youngest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as simple figurative language.
However, it could be the most significant element of this unusual position posting, as it aims to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of responses have already been received since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention throughout the press, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that in spite of first scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they wish to instil.
The consultant said the tutor must be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in riding, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who share those reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter explained that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and living both cultures. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can function as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transplant the qualities of a British gentleman to a infant child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will does not instantly create the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
