"A family residing in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled instructor to guide their youngest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally overlook the wording "beginning" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it could be the crucial part of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted attention across the press, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding early skepticism, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the development at the start here is somewhat osmotic," said the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they want to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", would the child absorb alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "The family realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who express similar doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He explained that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised understanding and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a representation of Britishness, a person who can possibly impart the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, appears naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will not automatically produce the goal they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be taught – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
