"A family residing in north London wants to find an remarkable and qualified educator to support their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally skip the term "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the crucial aspect of this unusual job advert, as it aims to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been sent in since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received notice across the media, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that despite early scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they understood the atypical nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they want to impart.
Adam noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "English 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 adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied Adam. "The parents know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who share these doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had relocated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can in some way transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from infancy will not necessarily produce the goal they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
