"Parents residing in North London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced educator to assist their most junior child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily skip the term "initial stages" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most significant aspect of this unique job advert, as it seeks to find a tutor for a infant.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted attention across the press, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, explained that despite early doubt, he viewed the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the unusual nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they aim to instil.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "English culture", might the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "They know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have these concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter explained that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been raised understanding and living dual heritages. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, someone who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will not necessarily achieve the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
