"A family based in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled tutor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily overlook the wording "initial stages" as mere an expression.
But, it may be the most significant part of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained notice across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that in spite of first scepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the atypical character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent history to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they wish to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
But, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who express these doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and living dual heritages. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can in some way transplant the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will not necessarily create the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
