"Parents located in North London seeks an exceptional and experienced instructor to assist their youngest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as just an expression.
Yet, it may be the most significant aspect of this unique employment listing, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been sent in since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted notice across the media, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that despite early doubt, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent history to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the learning at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they aim to cultivate.
He explained the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", answered he. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who have these reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can act as a representation of Britishness, someone who can in some way impart the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a infant child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will does not instantly produce the outcome they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
