"A family located in north London wants to find an remarkable and skilled tutor to assist their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally skip the wording "beginning" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the most significant element of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained attention throughout the media, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, explained that despite first doubt, he considered the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed him they did not want this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
He explained the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", would the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", answered Adam. "They realize this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who share those reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can function as a representation of UK identity, a person who can in some way transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a typically UK tutor from babyhood will does not instantly produce the result they want.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
