"A household located in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced tutor to assist their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily skip the term "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most significant element of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have since been received since the anonymous family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received interest throughout the news, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that despite early skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the unusual character of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the education at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they want to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have those doubts.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the time of seven, and had been brought up understanding and practicing dual heritages. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can possibly impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to live several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
