"A household based in North London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally skip the wording "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the crucial element of this unique employment listing, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained interest throughout the press, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that despite initial scepticism, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unusual character of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to impart.
Adam said the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied Adam. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who have those concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been brought up knowing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can act as a representation of English culture, an individual who can somehow transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, appears naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily achieve the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
