"Parents located in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as simple an expression.
Yet, it could be the crucial element of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been submitted since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained attention in the media, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding early doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family informed him they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they want to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", could the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "They understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who express those doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He noted that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can possibly impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a typically UK tutor from early childhood will not instantly achieve the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something the expert hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
