"Parents located in North London seeks an remarkable and qualified tutor to assist their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might readily miss the phrase "beginning" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to find a tutor for a infant.
Many of submissions have already been received since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received interest in the press, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that in spite of first scepticism, he found the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" 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 infant.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor had to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family told him the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or interest in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range 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 perspective, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who share these doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had relocated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a representation of UK identity, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a infant child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will does not instantly achieve the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
