"A household residing in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally miss the wording "initial stages" as simple figurative language.
But, it might be the most significant element of this unique job advert, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have since been received since the unidentified family advertised their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained notice across the media, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of initial skepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had by then become established".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they did not want history to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
He said the tutor had to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", answered he. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a typically UK tutor from infancy will will not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to experience several of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
