"Parents based in North London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally miss the phrase "beginning" as mere an expression.
However, it may be the most significant part of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have already been received since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted attention in the press, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that despite first doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to impart.
Adam said the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", answered he. "They know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who have those concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and living both cultures. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can function as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can possibly transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a typically UK tutor from infancy will not necessarily achieve the result they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
