"Parents located in north London seeks an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily overlook the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the crucial aspect of this unique position posting, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been submitted since the anonymous family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received attention across the press, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their search, explained that in spite of early skepticism, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the atypical aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then set in".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they did not want history to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," said the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor had to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express these doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and practicing dual heritages. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically English tutor from early childhood will not necessarily achieve the goal they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be educated – and sold.
"I think the fact that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
