"A family based in North London is looking for an exceptional and qualified educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily overlook the term "beginning" as just an expression.
But, it might be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it attempts to find a mentor for a infant.
Many of applications have already been sent in since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted attention across the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite initial scepticism, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the start here is kind of osmotic," stated Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they wish to instil.
Adam said the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The family know this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who have similar doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the age of seven, and had been raised understanding and living dual heritages. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly British tutor from infancy will does not instantly produce the goal they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
