"A household based in the northern part of London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily skip the term "beginning" as just an expression.
However, it might be the most significant part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have already been received since the unnamed family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received interest across the press, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that despite early scepticism, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the atypical nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already set in".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they aim to impart.
Adam explained the tutor had to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in success and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", replied he. "The parents know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who have these doubts.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears naive and impractical," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will not necessarily achieve the result they hope for.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the CEO believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
