"A household residing in North London is looking for an exceptional and qualified instructor to assist their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily skip the wording "beginning" as simple an expression.
Yet, it could be the most important aspect of this unique position posting, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have since been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has received notice throughout the media, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that in spite of first scepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told him they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the start here is kind of osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they want to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", said he. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who share those reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been educated experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can act as a representation of Britishness, a person who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically English tutor from infancy will does not instantly produce the goal they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert believes can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
