"A family residing in North London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to support their youngest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the wording "beginning" as just an expression.
However, it might be the most significant part of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been sent in since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted notice in the news, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that despite initial doubt, he found the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to impart.
He explained the tutor must be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", would the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who share similar reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can somehow impart the characteristics of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly English tutor from infancy will does not automatically produce the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
