"A family residing in North London wants to find an exceptional and experienced educator to support their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily overlook the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most significant element of this unique position posting, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been submitted since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received interest in the media, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of early doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they want to instil.
The consultant said the tutor must be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who have those doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been raised experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can function as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, appears naive and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a typically British tutor from infancy will will not automatically create the result they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
