"Parents based in North London is looking for an exceptional and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally skip the wording "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the most important part of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous 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 attention throughout the media, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite initial doubt, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed him they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to instil.
Adam noted the tutor must be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", said the CEO. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who have these concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been raised understanding and practicing dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can somehow transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically UK tutor from early childhood will not necessarily produce the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
