"A household located in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified tutor to assist their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily skip the wording "beginning" as mere an expression.
However, it might be the most significant part of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of responses have now been received since the unidentified family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted interest across the news, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of first skepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, 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 elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to him they did not want history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they aim to cultivate.
He explained the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he comments.
But, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", answered the CEO. "They know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who express those doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been raised understanding and embodying both cultures. He continued to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can function as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will will not necessarily achieve the goal they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the expert thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
