"Parents based in north London seeks an extraordinary and qualified educator to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as just figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial element of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted notice throughout the press, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that in spite of early scepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they did not want the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor must be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
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 picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who express similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been educated knowing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can in some way transfer the attributes of a English gentleman to a infant child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
