"A family residing in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified instructor to support their youngest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally miss the phrase "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the crucial element of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention in the media, with numerous asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that despite first doubt, he found the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they did not want the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
He explained the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied he. "They understand this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who express similar reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and living dual heritages. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will not automatically produce the result they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the fact that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
