"A family based in north London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled instructor to guide their smallest child on his first steps to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally skip the term "initial stages" as simple a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the crucial element of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have now been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained notice across the news, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite first scepticism, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the atypical aspect of their request, and how early in age their son is.
But, they stated 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 conditioning had already become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the start here is kind of osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to impart.
The consultant 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 educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
However, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", said he. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who share these doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying both cultures. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
