"A family residing in north London seeks an remarkable and skilled tutor to guide their youngest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily overlook the term "initial stages" as simple an expression.
But, it may be the most important element of this unique position posting, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been received since the unidentified family advertised their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received attention across the media, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of first doubt, he found the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the atypical character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their infant.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to impart.
Adam said the tutor must be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", answered he. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who express similar concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He wrote that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transfer the qualities of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a typically English tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily achieve the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
