"A family based in north London is looking for an exceptional and skilled instructor to support their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily skip the phrase "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most significant element of this unique job advert, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted interest in the news, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the atypical character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they wish to instil.
He said the tutor must be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who share these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been raised knowing and living two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a embodiment of Britishness, someone who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will will not instantly produce the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam believes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
