"A household located in north London is looking for an remarkable and skilled tutor to assist their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally miss the term "initial stages" as mere an expression.
However, it may be the crucial aspect of this unique job advert, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the media, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding first doubt, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they understood the atypical aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed him they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the outset here is rather osmotic," said Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – 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, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", answered he. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who share similar reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and living both cultures. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically British tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
