"A household based in North London is looking for an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally skip the term "beginning" as mere figurative language.
But, it may be the crucial aspect of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained attention across the news, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that in spite of first skepticism, he considered the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to him they did not want the same situation to recur with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor had to be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", answered he. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who share these reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a representation of English culture, someone who can somehow transplant the attributes of a British gentleman upon a infant child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a typically UK tutor from infancy will not automatically produce the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
