"Parents based in North London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily miss the term "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most significant part of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been submitted since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received attention across the media, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, said that despite early doubt, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unusual nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid history to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the development at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they wish to instil.
He explained the tutor had to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who share similar concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and practicing dual heritages. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will not instantly produce the outcome they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something Adam believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
