"A family residing in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified educator to assist their most junior child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily miss the term "initial stages" as just figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial part of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been submitted since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted attention throughout the media, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that despite first doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get 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 does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they want to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories 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 carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who have these doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can somehow impart the attributes of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will will not automatically produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
