"Parents residing in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and qualified instructor to support their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the phrase "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the crucial aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a infant.
Many of submissions have now been received since the unnamed family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted attention in the media, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their search, stated that despite early doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
However, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", said Adam. "The family realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have these reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He noted that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and living both cultures. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from infancy will will not automatically produce the goal they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to live several of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
