"A family based in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced instructor to assist their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most important aspect of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted attention throughout the press, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained 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 point "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they aim to impart.
He explained the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
But, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", would the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The family understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can act as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly British tutor from infancy will not automatically achieve the result they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be educated – and sold.
"I think the reality that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
