"A family located in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and skilled tutor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily overlook the term "beginning" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the crucial element of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received notice in the news, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding initial doubt, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional nature of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who express similar doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will does not automatically create the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
