"A household based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the phrase "beginning" as just an expression.
But, it could be the most important part of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have now been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted interest throughout the press, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they did not want this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," stated Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who have those concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been raised understanding and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a representation of English culture, an individual who can in some way transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, appears naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will does not necessarily create the outcome they want.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO believes can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
