"A household located in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the term "beginning" as mere an expression.
Yet, it may be the crucial element of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have since been sent in since the unidentified family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has received interest throughout the press, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, said that despite first doubt, he found the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, 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 point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", answered he. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who have similar concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing both cultures. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can possibly impart the attributes of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will will not necessarily produce the goal they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
