"A family located in north London is looking for an remarkable and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily overlook the phrase "beginning" as just figurative language.
Yet, it could be the most important element of this unique position posting, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Numerous of submissions have now been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has received interest in the press, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that despite initial doubt, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the atypical aspect of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, 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 bias had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor must be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "They know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who have these concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had relocated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that an individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can somehow impart the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a typically British tutor from early childhood will not necessarily achieve the outcome they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live several of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
