"Parents based in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and qualified educator to support their smallest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the crucial aspect of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have since been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted interest across the media, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding first scepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling 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 "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to instil.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be someone who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", could the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have these concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been brought up knowing and living both cultures. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can act as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way transfer the attributes of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a typically UK tutor from early childhood will not necessarily produce the result they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
