"A family located in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily overlook the phrase "initial stages" as just an expression.
However, it might be the most significant part of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been sent in 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 listing has received interest in the media, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that despite initial scepticism, he found the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they want to instil.
He said the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The family realize this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who have these reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying both cultures. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can function as a representation of English culture, a person who can possibly transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a typically British tutor from infancy will will not necessarily create the result they hope for.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the fact that the international society holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
