"Parents based in north London seeks an remarkable and experienced tutor to assist their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally miss the term "beginning" as mere an expression.
Yet, it could be the most significant aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to find a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have already been sent in since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention throughout the news, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that despite early skepticism, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they want to instil.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", replied Adam. "They realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who share those reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can in some way transplant the qualities of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will does not automatically create the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
