"A family residing in north London seeks an exceptional and qualified educator to guide their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily skip the phrase "beginning" as just an expression.
But, it may be the most important aspect of this unique job advert, as it aims to find a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have since been received since the unnamed family advertised their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the news, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, said that despite first scepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told him they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to impart.
He explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The family realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who express these reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically British tutor from infancy will will not instantly produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
