"Parents located in north London wants to find an exceptional and qualified educator to assist their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily skip the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most significant element of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been received since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted interest in the press, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that in spite of early scepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to instil.
He noted the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share these concerns.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can possibly transplant the qualities of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily produce the result they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something Adam believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the global community regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
