"A family based in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and experienced educator to support their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally skip the phrase "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it may be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have already been received since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has gained notice throughout the media, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that in spite of early scepticism, he found the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the atypical character of their request, and how immature 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 firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to impart.
He explained the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", said he. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who express similar reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and living both cultures. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can in some way transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a typically British tutor from early childhood will will not automatically produce the outcome they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be taught – and sold.
"I think the fact that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
