"Parents based in North London is looking for an exceptional and skilled educator to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily overlook the phrase "beginning" as just an expression.
Yet, it could be the most important element of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have since been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention across the press, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of initial doubt, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical character of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to him they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to instil.
The consultant said the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who share similar concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of seven, and had been raised understanding and living both cultures. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can act as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can in some way transplant the attributes of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will not necessarily produce the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
