"Parents based in North London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally overlook the term "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it might be the most significant element of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has gained interest throughout the news, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that despite initial scepticism, he found the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they wish to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", said Adam. "The family know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who share similar concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been raised experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can function as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can in some way transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly British tutor from infancy will not instantly produce the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to live many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
