"A family residing in north London wants to find an exceptional and skilled instructor to assist their smallest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily miss the wording "beginning" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it could be the most significant part of this unusual job advert, as it aims to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have now been sent in since the unidentified family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted notice across the media, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, stated that despite initial skepticism, he found the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the unconventional nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they wish to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who express these reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the time of seven, and had been educated experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can act as a representation of UK identity, a person who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily create the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
