"A family based in north London wants to find an remarkable and skilled educator to support their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally skip the wording "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
Yet, it may be the most important part of this unique employment listing, as it aims to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has received notice in the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding early doubt, he viewed the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the atypical nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated 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 stage "cultural influence had by then set in".
But what did 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 absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to impart.
He said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", replied he. "They know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who express these concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and embodying both cultures. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can possibly impart the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, having a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily produce the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
