"A family residing in north London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled instructor to assist their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally skip the wording "beginning" as mere an expression.
Yet, it may be the most significant part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have now been submitted since the unnamed family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received notice across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding early doubt, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told him they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they want to instil.
The consultant said the tutor must be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or interest in riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with regardless?
"Absolutely", replied he. "They understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who have similar reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can possibly impart the qualities of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
