"A family located in North London seeks an remarkable and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily overlook the term "first-steps" as just figurative language.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the advert has gained interest throughout the news, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that despite early scepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed him they did not want history to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to instil.
Adam explained the tutor had to be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", said he. "They know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective 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
There are some in the private teaching field who express similar doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He noted that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the period of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can possibly transplant the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from infancy will does not necessarily create the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
