"Parents located in North London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified educator to assist their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the phrase "beginning" as simple figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial part of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have already been received since the unnamed family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted attention throughout the media, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding early scepticism, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they did not want history to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they want to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", answered he. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who share these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman to a infant child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will not automatically create the result they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
