"A family located in north London seeks an extraordinary and skilled instructor to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily skip the term "beginning" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have since been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted notice across the press, with several wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first skepticism, he viewed the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated 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 stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told him they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the development at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they wish to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor must be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, despite all this instruction in "English culture", might the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", answered he. "They know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who express these doubts.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and embodying both cultures. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can in some way transplant the attributes of a English gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live many of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
