"A family based in North London is looking for an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the wording "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the most important element of this unique job advert, as it aims to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have already been sent in since the anonymous family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained interest across the news, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, said that in spite of first doubt, he found the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unusual nature of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then set in".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to impart.
The consultant said the tutor must be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor 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 added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The family realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who share similar concerns.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and embodying dual heritages. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can function as a representation of UK identity, a person who can possibly transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the outcome they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the situation that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
