"Parents located in North London seeks an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their most junior child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
But, it might be the most important element of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have already been sent in since the unidentified family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the news, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that in spite of early scepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to impart.
Adam explained the tutor had to be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who have those doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will will not automatically produce the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, personal identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, English culture is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
