"A household based in North London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified instructor to assist their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "beginning" as simple an expression.
However, it may be the crucial element of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have now been sent in since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention in the media, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding early doubt, he considered the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unusual aspect of their requirement, 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 postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told him they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed 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 have those reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and living dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can somehow transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will will not instantly achieve the goal they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be taught – and sold.
"I think the fact that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
