"A household based in north London seeks an exceptional and skilled tutor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily skip the term "initial stages" as mere an expression.
Yet, it may be the most significant part of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted attention in the press, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, stated that in spite of first scepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the atypical character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they aim to cultivate.
He said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or passion in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", would the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", answered he. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who express these concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been educated knowing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a typically British tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily create the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
