"A household based in north London wants to find an exceptional and skilled tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily miss the phrase "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the crucial aspect of this unique position posting, as it aims to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted notice across the press, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that despite early scepticism, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the unusual nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then become established".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they want to cultivate.
He said the tutor had to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied he. "They understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who have those reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had moved from China to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and embodying both cultures. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transfer the qualities of a English gentleman upon a infant child, appears naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily produce the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to experience several of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
