"A household located in North London is looking for an exceptional and qualified tutor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as mere figurative language.
But, it may be the most significant part of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have already been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention across the press, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their search, explained that despite early skepticism, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they did not want the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they want to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor needed to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes 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 success and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", said he. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who express similar reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He explained that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been raised understanding and living dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a representation of English culture, an individual who can in some way transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will does not automatically produce the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
