"Parents based in north London is looking for an remarkable and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the wording "beginning" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the most important part of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been received since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained attention throughout the press, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that despite initial skepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to instil.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who share similar doubts.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and embodying both cultures. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a typically English tutor from infancy will will not automatically create the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the expert thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
