"Parents based in north London seeks an exceptional and qualified educator to support their youngest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily skip the phrase "beginning" as simple an expression.
However, it could be the most important aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted interest in the news, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that in spite of early skepticism, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the atypical character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the outset here is kind of osmotic," said the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
He explained the tutor must be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "English culture", could the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "They realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who express similar reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can act as a representation of UK identity, a person who can in some way transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not necessarily achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
