"Parents located in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced educator to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the wording "beginning" as mere figurative language.
However, it could be the most important part of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have already been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received attention across the news, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that despite first skepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the unusual aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety 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 minds, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", would the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", answered he. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who have similar reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can act as a representation of Britishness, someone who can somehow transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will does not automatically produce the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
