"A family based in North London wants to find an remarkable and experienced educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the term "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important element of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a infant.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted interest in the media, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that in spite of first skepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical aspect of their request, and how immature 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 bias had already become established".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they did not want history to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they want to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types 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 aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "They know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who have similar reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had moved from China to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been brought up knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a typically British tutor from babyhood will will not automatically achieve the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
