"Parents based in the northern part of London seeks an remarkable and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally miss the term "beginning" as just figurative language.
Yet, it may be the crucial aspect of this unique position posting, as it aims to hire a tutor for a infant.
Numerous of applications have now been received since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received interest in the media, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to instil.
He noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
However, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", said Adam. "They realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who share these reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and living both cultures. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily achieve the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
