"A family based in North London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled educator to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily overlook the term "beginning" as just figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has received notice in the press, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that despite initial doubt, he found the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the atypical aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have similar reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He explained that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and practicing both cultures. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can function as a embodiment of Britishness, someone who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a infant child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will does not instantly create the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
