"A family based in North London seeks an exceptional and qualified educator to assist their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily miss the phrase "beginning" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the most important aspect of this unusual position posting, as it aims to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted notice in the media, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that despite initial scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family informed him they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor must be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", could the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", said he. "They realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who share similar concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and embodying both cultures. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can in some way impart the attributes of a British gentleman to a infant child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will will not necessarily produce the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live many of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
