"A family based in North London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced educator to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally miss the term "beginning" as mere an expression.
But, it could be the most important aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have already been sent in since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained interest throughout the news, with several wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that despite first skepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unconventional character of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already taken hold".
But what does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they want to instil.
Adam said the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who have those reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from China to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying dual heritages. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a typically UK tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily achieve the goal they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the situation that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
