"Parents based in the northern part of London seeks an remarkable and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily skip the term "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the most significant aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have now been submitted since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has gained interest across the media, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that despite first scepticism, he found the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the unusual nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, 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 bias had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they want to impart.
Adam said the tutor had to be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to 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 "UK identity", could the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who share those reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert noted that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and living dual heritages. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can possibly impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, appears naive and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly British tutor from infancy will not necessarily achieve the result they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
