"Parents located in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally overlook the phrase "beginning" as mere figurative language.
However, it may be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained attention throughout the media, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that despite early doubt, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they did not want history to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
He said the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
However, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", answered he. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who have these reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the period of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a typically British tutor from infancy will not automatically achieve the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live several of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert believes can be educated – and sold.
"I believe the fact that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
