"A family located in north London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled instructor to support their most junior child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily overlook the term "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most significant aspect of this unique position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have now been received since the anonymous family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted notice in the news, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first skepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to instil.
He noted the tutor had to be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – 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 don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
However, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The parents know this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who have similar reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had relocated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can somehow impart the attributes of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will not instantly achieve the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
