"A household located in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified educator to assist their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally skip the phrase "initial stages" as just figurative language.
But, it might be the most significant element of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received notice across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding first skepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unusual character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied he. "They understand this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who express similar doubts.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated experiencing and living both cultures. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can act as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will not automatically create the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to live many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something Adam believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
