"A family located in north London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled instructor to guide their smallest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as just figurative language.
But, it could be the most significant element of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention in the news, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite first doubt, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the atypical character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, 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 point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who have these reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had relocated from China to the UK at the period of seven, and had been raised knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, a person who can possibly transfer the attributes of a English gentleman upon a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a typically UK tutor from early childhood will not automatically create the result they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
