"A household located in North London seeks an exceptional and skilled instructor to assist their youngest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily skip the phrase "beginning" as mere an expression.
However, it might be the most significant part of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of applications have since been submitted since the unnamed family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted attention across the press, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite first doubt, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the unconventional character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told him they did not want the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the outset here is rather osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to instil.
He noted the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "They realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who express these doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying dual heritages. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can possibly impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically British tutor from babyhood will not automatically achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience many of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
