"A household based in North London wants to find an exceptional and skilled educator to support their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might readily skip the wording "beginning" as just figurative language.
However, it could be the most important element of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the unidentified family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the media, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that despite early scepticism, he found the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the unconventional nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to instil.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", would the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who have those concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can act as a representation of UK identity, someone who can possibly impart the qualities of a English gentleman to a infant child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will not automatically produce the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something Adam thinks can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the reality that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
