"A household located in North London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily overlook the wording "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the most significant aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it attempts to find a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have since been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained attention in the news, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of initial doubt, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then set in".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they want to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor must be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", would the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "The family realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who share those concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He wrote that he had emigrated from China to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been educated knowing and living dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can act as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will will not automatically achieve the result they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "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
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
