"A family located in North London is looking for an exceptional and experienced tutor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most important element of this unique position posting, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Many of applications have since been received since the unidentified family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained interest throughout the media, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that in spite of initial skepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed him they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they aim to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who express those doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can possibly impart the qualities of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will will not instantly produce the result they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
