"A family based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and qualified educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the phrase "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the most important aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a infant.
Many of applications have since been submitted since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained attention throughout the press, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, stated that despite initial doubt, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to impart.
Adam said the tutor must be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Yes", said the CEO. "The family understand this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have similar reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been raised understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transfer the attributes of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a typically UK tutor from infancy will will not necessarily create the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience several of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
