"Parents located in North London wants to find an exceptional and experienced instructor to assist their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily skip the term "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the crucial aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have now been received since the unidentified family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received attention in the media, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that despite initial doubt, he found the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told him they did not want the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the outset here is rather osmotic," said Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor must be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "The family understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who express those doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He explained that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can possibly impart the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will does not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
