"A family based in North London wants to find an remarkable and experienced educator to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might readily skip the term "beginning" as just figurative language.
However, it could be the most important element of this unique position posting, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have now been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has received notice in the media, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, said that in spite of early doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor must be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan 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 commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", would the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", said Adam. "They realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who have similar doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of seven, and had been brought up understanding and practicing both cultures. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can function as a representation of UK identity, a person who can in some way transplant the qualities of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will does not automatically produce the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the reality that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
