"Parents located in North London is looking for an exceptional and experienced educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.
However, it could be the most important aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to find a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted notice in the news, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of first doubt, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional character of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already become established".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the outset here is kind of osmotic," stated the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they want to instil.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – 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 doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who share similar reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He explained that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and embodying dual heritages. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can function as a embodiment of Britishness, someone who can somehow transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will not automatically achieve the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
