"A household located in north London seeks an extraordinary and skilled instructor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the most important element of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted attention throughout the press, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding initial doubt, he found the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already become established".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they did not want history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they wish to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor had to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", might the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who share these concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He explained that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been raised knowing and practicing both cultures. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the reality that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
