"Parents residing in North London seeks an exceptional and qualified educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily skip the wording "beginning" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the crucial aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the unidentified family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted interest in the press, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite initial doubt, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they did not want this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they aim to impart.
Adam said the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", might the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who have similar reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had moved from China to the UK at the time of seven, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a representation of English culture, someone who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, having a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily produce the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity can not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
