"A family residing in North London is looking for an remarkable and skilled instructor to guide their youngest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the phrase "beginning" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the crucial part of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been submitted since the anonymous family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention throughout the news, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional nature of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they wish to instil.
The consultant said the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or passion in riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "The family realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who share similar doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been brought up knowing and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can function as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transplant the attributes of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a typically UK tutor from babyhood will will not automatically produce the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to live numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
