"Parents based in North London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled tutor to guide their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as just figurative language.
But, it might be the most significant element of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to find a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted interest across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of first scepticism, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told Adam they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to instil.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express those doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated understanding and living both cultures. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can act as a representation of Britishness, someone who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will not necessarily achieve the goal they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
