"A household based in North London is looking for an remarkable and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the term "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most important part of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of responses have since been received since the unidentified family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted attention across the press, with numerous asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the learning at the start here is rather osmotic," stated the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor must be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection 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 minds, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", answered he. "The family know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who share those reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter explained that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living dual heritages. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will does not instantly produce the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
