"A family located in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced instructor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily skip the term "beginning" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it could be the most important part of this unique job advert, as it seeks to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have since been sent in since the unidentified family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained attention throughout the news, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that in spite of early doubt, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified 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 stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
He explained the tutor had to be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", would the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied he. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who have similar concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He noted that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the period of seven, and had been educated knowing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can act as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will not instantly create the result they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be taught – and sold.
"I think the reality that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
