"A family located in north London seeks an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally miss the phrase "first-steps" as just an expression.
However, it could be the most significant element of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of applications have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted notice across the news, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, stated that in spite of initial skepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the education at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to instil.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "They know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express these reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He noted that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the age of seven, and had been raised knowing and living dual heritages. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transfer the qualities of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will not necessarily create the result they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something Adam hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
