"A family residing in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and qualified tutor to guide their most junior child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily overlook the phrase "beginning" as simple an expression.
But, it may be the most important aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have since been submitted since the unnamed family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted interest throughout the press, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that despite initial scepticism, he found the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed him they wished to avoid history to recur with their infant.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," explained Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they wish to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
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 picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They understand this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who express those concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been educated understanding and living two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, seems to me naive and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not automatically achieve the result they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the reality that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
