"A family based in North London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily overlook the phrase "beginning" as simple an expression.
However, it might be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it aims to find a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of applications have already been received since the unidentified family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted attention across the media, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite initial skepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical aspect of their request, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already set in".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to him they did not want history to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," said the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor must be someone who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in riding, winter sports, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been educated knowing and practicing both cultures. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transplant the qualities of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will does not instantly create the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
