"Parents based in north London wants to find an remarkable and experienced tutor to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the wording "beginning" as just an expression.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been submitted since the unidentified family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has received interest throughout the news, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that despite initial scepticism, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told him they did not want this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," explained the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor needed to 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 appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", said he. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express those concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the time of seven, and had been educated understanding and embodying both cultures. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can possibly impart the qualities of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily produce the result they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live many of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
