"A household residing in north London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled tutor to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the term "beginning" as mere figurative language.
But, it could be the most significant element of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to hire a tutor for a infant.
Many of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has received attention throughout the press, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that in spite of early scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their infant.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is rather osmotic," explained Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to impart.
He said the tutor had to be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or interest in riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons 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, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The family realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have those concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised understanding and living both cultures. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will does not automatically produce the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live many of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
