"A household located in north London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified instructor to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily overlook the phrase "beginning" as mere an expression.
Yet, it may be the crucial part of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been sent in since the unidentified family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted attention in the press, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that in spite of first doubt, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical character of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they aim to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The family realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who express these concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, someone who can somehow impart the qualities of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will not instantly achieve the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the expert hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
