"A family located in North London wants to find an remarkable and qualified instructor to assist their smallest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally skip the term "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most important part of this unique job advert, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received interest throughout the media, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that despite first scepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they want to instil.
He said the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The family know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who express these reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will does not instantly produce the goal they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
