"Parents residing in north London seeks an extraordinary and experienced instructor to guide their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it attempts to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received notice in the media, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that in spite of early doubt, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the atypical aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the start here is kind of osmotic," said the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they wish to impart.
Adam said the tutor must be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "English culture", would the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", replied he. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have those reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been raised understanding and embodying both cultures. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can function as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can possibly transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
