"Parents located in North London seeks an remarkable and qualified tutor to support their most junior child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily overlook the wording "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the most significant part of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained interest throughout the press, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding first scepticism, he found the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they did not want this pattern to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of osmotic," explained Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
He explained the tutor must be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or interest in riding, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who share those reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had moved from China to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transplant the qualities of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will not necessarily produce the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the international society holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
