"Parents based in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified instructor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally skip the term "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the crucial aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to find a teacher for a infant.
Many of responses have already been received since the unidentified family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has received attention across the press, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that despite first doubt, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they wish to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor must be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", might the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied Adam. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who have those doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He noted that he had emigrated from China to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying both cultures. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can in some way transfer the attributes of a British gentleman upon a infant child, appears naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will will not instantly produce the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
