"A family located in north London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified instructor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily overlook the phrase "beginning" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it could be the crucial part of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have now been submitted since the unidentified family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the advert has gained interest throughout the news, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that despite first skepticism, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent history to recur with their infant.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the outset here is rather osmotic," said Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to instil.
He said the tutor must be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Yes", replied he. "They know this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and embodying both cultures. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can act as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can in some way transplant the qualities of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will not necessarily achieve the goal they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the reality that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
