"A household located in North London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled instructor to assist their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily miss the phrase "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most important part of this unique job advert, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have already been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the press, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first scepticism, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then set in".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they did not want this pattern to recur with their infant.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they aim to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express similar doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can in some way transplant the attributes of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a typically UK tutor from early childhood will will not instantly produce the goal they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the international society holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
