"A family based in North London wants to find an remarkable and skilled instructor to support their youngest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily skip the wording "beginning" as simple an expression.
However, it might be the most important aspect of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have now been received since the unidentified family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained attention throughout the news, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that despite first doubt, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical nature of their request, 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 older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
But what did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is kind of osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", answered he. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who express those reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He noted that he had relocated from China to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can somehow impart the attributes of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from infancy will does not automatically achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
