"A family based in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to support their youngest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might readily miss the phrase "beginning" as just an expression.
However, it may be the crucial part of this unique job advert, as it attempts to find a teacher for a infant.
Many of applications have already been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received notice across the press, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that despite early scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical character of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
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 must be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He noted that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can act as a embodiment of Britishness, someone who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will does not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
