"A family residing in North London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled tutor to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily overlook the wording "beginning" as just an expression.
Yet, it may be the crucial element of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to find a teacher for a infant.
Many of submissions have now been sent in since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted notice across the media, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding early doubt, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they did not want the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the education at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor must be someone who went to "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The family know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who express similar concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the period of seven, and had been brought up understanding and living two backgrounds. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can possibly impart the qualities of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will will not instantly create the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
