"A household based in the northern part of London seeks an remarkable and skilled tutor to assist their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily miss the term "beginning" as mere figurative language.
However, it might be the most important part of this unique job advert, as it aims to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been received since the unidentified family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received interest throughout the press, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding first doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the unconventional nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid history to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they aim to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor 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 the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have similar concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been educated knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can function as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman to a infant child, appears naive and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will does not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert believes can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
