"A household based in North London seeks an remarkable and skilled educator to assist their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally miss the wording "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the crucial element of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been received since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained interest in the news, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that in spite of early doubt, he considered the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the learning at the outset here is kind of osmotic," said the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to instil.
The consultant said the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who have these reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated understanding and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can somehow transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will does not instantly create the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to live many of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be taught – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
