"A household based in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to assist their smallest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily skip the wording "beginning" as just figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important part of this unusual position posting, as it aims to find a teacher for a infant.
Many of submissions have since been received since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received attention throughout the news, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of early scepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the unusual aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they aim to impart.
Adam noted the tutor had to be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, despite all this guidance in "English culture", could the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who express similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had moved from China to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and practicing both cultures. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a infant child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will will not automatically produce the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
