"A household based in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced educator to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally skip the term "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted attention across the press, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that in spite of first scepticism, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family explained to the consultant they did not want this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," explained the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to instil.
He explained the tutor must be an individual who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", said he. "They understand this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who have similar concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can act as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can in some way transplant the attributes of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, having a typically English tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the reality that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
