"A family based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced instructor to support their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily skip the wording "beginning" as simple an expression.
Yet, it may be the crucial aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have now been sent in since the anonymous family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the press, with several wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that despite early doubt, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual aspect of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner 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 explained to him they did not want this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they wish to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The family understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective 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
Several in the education sector who share those reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can act as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically British tutor from infancy will will not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
