"A family residing in North London wants to find an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
However, it could be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have now been sent in since the unidentified family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained interest across the press, with numerous asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the atypical nature of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family informed him they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to instil.
Adam explained the tutor must be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "They know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who express these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had moved from China to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can possibly transfer the qualities of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily create the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the fact that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
