"Parents residing in North London seeks an exceptional and qualified educator to assist their most junior child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally skip the phrase "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it may be the most significant element of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have now been received since the anonymous family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted attention in the news, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of initial skepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," stated Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
He explained the tutor must be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The parents know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the time of seven, and had been brought up understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a living vessel of UK identity, someone who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will will not automatically create the goal they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the fact that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
