"A family residing in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and qualified instructor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily overlook the phrase "initial stages" as just figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial part of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have now been sent in since the unidentified family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention across the press, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, stated that despite initial doubt, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
He explained the tutor must be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback 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 "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", replied he. "The family understand this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who share these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been educated experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can act as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will does not necessarily create the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the global community regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
