"A household located in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled instructor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily miss the phrase "beginning" as just an expression.
However, it could be the most significant aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been submitted since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained attention across the news, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that despite first scepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then set in".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the outset here is kind of osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor had to be someone who went to "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who share these doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can somehow impart the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not automatically create the outcome they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience several of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert believes can be educated – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
