"A household located in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and skilled tutor to assist their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily miss the term "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the crucial aspect of this unique job advert, as it aims to find a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have now been sent in since the unnamed family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received notice across the media, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", replied he. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken 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 relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who have similar reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the time of seven, and had been raised experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, someone who can in some way impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will will not instantly achieve the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
