"A household residing in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally skip the term "first-steps" as just an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been submitted since the unnamed 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 received interest in the press, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that despite early doubt, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the atypical nature of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
But what did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the outset here is rather osmotic," explained Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to instil.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be an individual who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", replied he. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
A number of in the private teaching field who share similar concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying both cultures. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can possibly impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will not automatically create the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live many of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
