"A household located in North London seeks an extraordinary and skilled educator to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily overlook the wording "beginning" as just figurative language.
Yet, it may be the crucial aspect of this unique position posting, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been submitted since the unidentified family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted interest in the media, with many wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that in spite of initial doubt, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained 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 point "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", said the CEO. "The family understand this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who share those doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and living dual heritages. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can act as a representation of Britishness, someone who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will not automatically create the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to live several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert hopes can be educated – and sold.
"I think the situation that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
