"A household based in North London seeks an exceptional and skilled instructor to support their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily skip the wording "first-steps" as just figurative language.
Yet, it could be the crucial part of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been sent in since the anonymous family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted notice in the press, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, explained that despite initial doubt, he considered the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unusual character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to impart.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan 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, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied Adam. "The family realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have similar doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can somehow impart the qualities of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience many of the situations they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
