"Parents located in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and experienced instructor to assist their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily skip the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the most important part of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted interest in the press, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that despite initial doubt, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already become established".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed him they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the outset here is rather osmotic," stated the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they want to instil.
He explained the tutor needed to be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", answered he. "They understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who share those reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the time of seven, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a infant child, seems to me naive and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically English tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily create the result they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
