"A family located in north London seeks an exceptional and experienced tutor to guide their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily miss the term "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the crucial aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have already been received since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received attention in the media, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding first skepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the unusual character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told him they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
However, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who have similar doubts.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been educated understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can somehow impart the attributes of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, having a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily achieve the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, English culture is something the expert thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
