"A household residing in north London wants to find an remarkable and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily skip the phrase "beginning" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the most important element of this unique position posting, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have now been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received attention across the media, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that despite first doubt, he considered the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, 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 point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they want to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The family know this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who share those doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had moved from China to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and embodying dual heritages. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of Britishness, someone who can in some way impart the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will will not instantly produce the result they want.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
