"A household based in north London is looking for an exceptional and experienced instructor to support their most junior child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally miss the wording "beginning" as mere an expression.
Yet, it might be the most important element of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a infant.
Many of applications have now been submitted since the unidentified family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the press, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that despite initial skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed him they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they want to instil.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types 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, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express those doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had moved from China to the UK at the age of seven, and had been raised experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can in some way impart the characteristics of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will will not necessarily produce the result they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience several of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
