"A family residing in North London seeks an extraordinary and skilled tutor to support their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily skip the wording "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most important part of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have now been sent in since the unidentified family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the media, with numerous asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of early doubt, he considered the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
But what does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," said the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they aim to instil.
Adam said the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share similar concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
Peter explained that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and living dual heritages. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily produce the goal they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to live several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the expert thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
