"A household based in north London seeks an extraordinary and experienced tutor to assist their smallest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the phrase "initial stages" as simple figurative language.
However, it could be the most important element of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been submitted since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted interest across the press, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding early skepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," stated Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor must be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", would the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", replied he. "The parents know this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who share similar doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been raised experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from babyhood will will not automatically achieve the result they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
