"Parents residing in North London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily miss the phrase "initial stages" as just an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial element of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been received since the unidentified family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted interest throughout the press, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that despite first scepticism, he found the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is rather osmotic," explained the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to impart.
The consultant said the tutor must be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who have similar concerns.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from China to the Britain at the period of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and living two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can somehow impart the attributes of a English gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience many of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
