"A family based in north London wants to find an exceptional and skilled instructor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily skip the wording "beginning" as just figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most significant element of this unique job advert, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of applications have now been received since the anonymous family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted notice across the press, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding first scepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to impart.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", replied he. "The family understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express those doubts.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing both cultures. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can in some way impart the qualities of a English gentleman onto a infant child, appears naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily create the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
