"Parents based in North London seeks an extraordinary and skilled instructor to support their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily overlook the wording "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the crucial aspect of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have already been received since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted notice in the press, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that despite initial skepticism, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical character of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to instil.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, 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 ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "They understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who express these doubts.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had moved from China to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can function as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
