"A family residing in north London wants to find an exceptional and experienced instructor to assist their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the term "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most important element of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have already been submitted since the unnamed family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained attention across the media, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding first scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated 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 influence had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed him they did not want the same situation to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is rather osmotic," stated the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who express these doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can function as a representation of UK identity, someone who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a typically English tutor from babyhood will not automatically achieve the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating