"A household residing in North London wants to find an exceptional and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily skip the wording "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the crucial aspect of this unique position posting, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have since been submitted since the anonymous family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained notice across the media, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite initial skepticism, he viewed the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they want to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor must be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories 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 carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who have similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living both cultures. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily produce the goal they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
