"A household located in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and skilled instructor to assist their youngest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily miss the phrase "initial stages" as mere figurative language.
But, it might be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of responses have already been received since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the media, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding initial doubt, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
He noted the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to enrol 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 minds, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "The parents know this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who have similar reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been educated understanding and living two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from infancy will does not instantly create the goal they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
