"A household based in north London wants to find an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might readily overlook the wording "beginning" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial part of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Many of submissions have since been submitted since the unidentified family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has gained notice throughout the media, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that in spite of early doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unusual aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they did not want the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to impart.
Adam explained the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who have these doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He explained that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated knowing and living dual heritages. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can in some way transplant the attributes of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not necessarily produce the outcome they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to live many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
