"A family located in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily overlook the term "beginning" as mere an expression.
But, it may be the most significant element of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been received since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted notice in the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that in spite of initial doubt, he found the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is rather osmotic," explained the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they want to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor must be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", could the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", answered he. "They understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who share those reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been raised understanding and living both cultures. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can possibly transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a typically UK tutor from infancy will will not instantly achieve the result they want.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the fact that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
