"Parents residing in North London is looking for an exceptional and experienced instructor to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally miss the term "beginning" as simple figurative language.
However, it may be the most important part of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained notice throughout the news, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to impart.
Adam said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types 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 don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
But, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The family realize this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who have those concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and practicing both cultures. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can in some way transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, appears optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, having a distinctly English tutor from infancy will not necessarily produce the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
