"A household based in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified tutor to assist their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "beginning" as simple figurative language.
However, it may be the most significant element of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the unnamed family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained interest across the news, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then set in".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid history to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to instil.
He said the tutor must be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express similar concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and embodying both cultures. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can somehow transplant the attributes of a English gentleman to a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically UK tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the goal they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
