"Parents based in North London is looking for an extraordinary and qualified instructor to guide their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally miss the term "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most important part of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have now been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has received attention in the press, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor must be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "They realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who share those reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can function as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can in some way impart the attributes of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, having a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not instantly produce the result they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
