"Parents residing in North London seeks an extraordinary and experienced tutor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the phrase "beginning" as just an expression.
Yet, it may be the most significant part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been sent in since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the news, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding first doubt, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional character of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the start here is kind of osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The parents know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who share those reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He noted that he had relocated from China to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and practicing both cultures. He continued to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can function as a representation of English culture, someone who can possibly transfer the qualities of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a typically English tutor from babyhood will not necessarily create the outcome they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
