"A household based in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and qualified educator to support their most junior child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally skip the phrase "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the crucial aspect of this unique employment listing, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have already been submitted since the unnamed family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained interest across the press, with many questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that in spite of early skepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already become established".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, 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 infant.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they aim to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
But, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", said he. "The family know this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who express those doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can in some way impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will not automatically achieve the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
