"Parents based in North London is looking for an exceptional and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the crucial part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have already been received since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received interest across the media, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that in spite of early doubt, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already set in".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they want to impart.
Adam noted the tutor had to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", answered he. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who have these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He explained that he had moved from China to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can act as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily create the outcome they want.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the fact that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
