"A household based in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and experienced tutor to guide their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily overlook the term "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been submitted since the unnamed family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the media, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite early scepticism, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated 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 by then become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they did not want this pattern to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to impart.
Adam explained the tutor had to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", answered Adam. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who have similar concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly British tutor from infancy will will not necessarily achieve the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
