"Parents based in North London wants to find an remarkable and experienced educator to assist their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere an expression.
But, it may be the crucial element of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been received since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received attention in the news, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite first scepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then become established".
But what did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told him they did not want this pattern to recur with their infant.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat osmotic," said the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
He said the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", could the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", replied he. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who share these doubts.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He wrote that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying both cultures. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a British gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will not necessarily achieve the outcome they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
