"A household based in North London seeks an exceptional and qualified educator to assist their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily miss the term "beginning" as simple an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial part of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have now been received since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained interest across the media, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that despite early skepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already set in".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the start here is somewhat osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", replied he. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have those reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly English tutor from infancy will does not necessarily achieve the result they hope for.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
