"A household residing in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and experienced tutor to support their most junior child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally miss the phrase "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most significant aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have since been submitted since the unnamed family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained notice in the media, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that in spite of initial doubt, he found the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unconventional character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to him they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Absolutely", answered he. "They know this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who share these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had moved from China to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and living both cultures. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can function as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the qualities of a British gentleman upon a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will will not necessarily achieve the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
