"A household based in North London is looking for an extraordinary and qualified tutor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might readily skip the wording "beginning" as just an expression.
However, it may be the most important aspect of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted attention across the press, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite early scepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to instil.
The consultant said the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator 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 told him the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection 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 perspective, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", replied Adam. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who have those concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the age of seven, and had been raised experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can function as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can in some way impart the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a infant child, appears naive and impractical," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily create the result they hope for.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience many of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
