"A family based in North London is looking for an remarkable and skilled instructor to support their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the most important element of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention throughout the media, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, said that in spite of initial scepticism, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the unusual aspect of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
But, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they want to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", said he. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who have those reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering 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 period of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will does not automatically produce the goal they hope for.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
