"Parents located in North London seeks an exceptional and qualified tutor to support their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might readily skip the term "beginning" as just figurative language.
However, it could be the most important aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted interest in the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that despite initial doubt, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they want to instil.
He noted the tutor had to be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", said Adam. "The family realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who share these doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He explained that he had moved from China to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transfer the qualities of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will does not automatically achieve the goal they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
