"A household located in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified tutor to guide their most junior child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily miss the term "initial stages" as mere an expression.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this unique job advert, as it aims to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the advert has gained attention across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that despite early scepticism, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual nature of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already set in".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the start here is somewhat osmotic," said the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they aim to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor had to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
But, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", replied he. "They know this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been raised knowing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can function as a representation of English culture, someone who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically English tutor from babyhood will does not instantly achieve the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to live many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
