"A family located in north London is looking for an exceptional and qualified tutor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the phrase "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the crucial element of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have already been received since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the media, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, stated that despite initial scepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the start here is rather osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to impart.
He said the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape 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 classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", answered he. "They know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express these doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and living both cultures. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of UK identity, a person who can possibly transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a typically English tutor from early childhood will not instantly achieve the goal they want.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the fact that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
