"Parents based in north London is looking for an exceptional and qualified instructor to assist their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily miss the wording "beginning" as mere an expression.
But, it could be the most significant part of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the listing has received attention throughout the news, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that despite initial scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the outset here is kind of osmotic," said Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", could the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have those doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and practicing both cultures. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can somehow transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will will not instantly achieve the result they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
